The next DRAGON AGE™: Behind the scenes at BioWare

That could be how they hint at it, for example the pyramids on Par Vollen. Maybe in the game that begins setting that up can show Antiva and Rivain as well since both are known for their ships. 

DA4: Tevinter, Par Vollen, Anderfels, maybe Nevarra
DA5: Antiva, Rivain, maybe Nevarra, maybe coast of new continent
That's all the nations explored. 

I wouldn't say it's premature, since Bioware has been hinting at it. Like The Iron Bull being vague about why the Qunari had to leave, the Executors coming to Thedas, Josephine wanting to sail the world, etc. 

I think that's what DA4 will be, judging from the plots (Solas, Red Lyrium, Qun-Tevinter War). 

Since the general conversation has moved back around to what locations we will be visiting...and the game's plot...probably shouldn't be doing this but I have been musing anyways.

Now of course this is based on some speculation and the current thrust of the plot and assuming that they basically do the whole Origins thing where each country/ region has its own plot and story to tell which will then help solve the over arching plot, complete with compelling story reasons to actually go there. So keeping that in mind.

Tevinter/ Seheron/ 'the north': Main Plot: Open warfare with the Qunari, stopping Solas. This will be the big grand set piece region, hopefully like the Exalted Plains on Steroids. Filled with sieges and signs of pitched battle or actual pitched battles. Side missions: Dealing with the kind of horrors of that kind of open warfare.
Antiva: Main Plot: Secret wars. Given that the Crows are their 'only real military' such quests in here could be dealing with the Qunari via ambush or cloak and dagger stealth type guerilla warfare. Or alternatively helping the locals raising themselves. Side missions: Could focus on the depth of this struggle and navigating the internal politics of the Crows.
The Anderfels: Main Plot: Whatever the heck is going on with the Wardens, seems ripe for Red Lyrium focused stuff part. Side missions:...not sure but given the remote nature of them this could be ripe for more exploration or monster hunting focused stuff.
Nevarra: Main plot: Dealing with the complicated political relationship between the Mortalitasi and the Neverran nobility, maybe find more information on Solas. If any place on Thedas could have access to ancient magical knowledge, it would be here. Side missions: Monster hunting (thanks to Hormok) or also doing a deep lore dive on the Mortalitassi.

Of course the monster hunting challenges, how much we get, will probably show up in a variety of missions...and we will have to see where any expansion takes us,


I would sympathise with you and think you have a point, and may have a point going forward, it is a worrry of mine that they will spread themselves too thin.

But I do think most of the reasons for DA I llacking in these areas were the list of technical limitations they were dealing with combined to make them weaker story wise then they otherwise could've been. Afterall the Witcher 3 (if you played it) basically did visit pretty much the same amount of countries DAI did and the story was far more down to earth and in your face with each areas plot feeling pretty fleshed out. (Granted each area pretty much was its own map whereas DAI had multiple), so I think since we are entering a new generation and DA 4 will likely just release on it that should give them a lot more technical resources to play with and at least allow them to do this kind of story justice...maybe. Because, to me, even Andromeda showed vast improvement in these areas.

Of course the other factor comes down to 1. what kind of story they want to tell and B. how well they can execute those plans. It might be they want to tell a very 'high level' story...though I kind of hope they don't. But either way there are things they can do to make it work, theoretically.

On the flip side though must we visit EVERY nation? Must every nation be important to the plot? WHile it might be nice to visit said places to get an experience of the lore its also not a reasonable expectation to have. For me personally I have almost zero interest to go to Rivain...or Antiva for that matter. Tevinter and the Anderfellls is pretty much where its at for me.

I'm not arguing that games can't span several nations and make them all feel unique and lived-in, let alone that future games should emulate DAII. I'm arguing that doing it is a hell of a lot more difficult than sticking to one nation and culture as the focus of the story and then only sniffing at the borders of others as they become relevant to the plot. And Bioware doesn't seem to have the touch.

I have in fact played The Witcher 3, and unlike Inquisition it presented you with full maps of various different communities both urban and rural to explore in each nation with countless questlines and interesting characters to fill them, giving you a real feeling for what the world looked like for the inhabitants of each.

And even then, if you've played the previous two Witcher games, it managed to pretty much flatten the four different cultures the story had focused on up to that point into a single-flavored "Northern Kingdoms".

In contrast, Inquisition gave us several essentially empty patches of unpopulated countryside to run around and find secret temples and monsters in, and then a few flat token examples of a town or city in both Ferelden and Orlais full of puffed-up caricatures of each country's cultural values. Completely unsatisfying. Inquisition did a terrible job of using its locations and making them feel real and connected, and I can just imagine Bioware doing the same to Tevinter and Nevarra in 4.

I'd rather never have seen Orlais with my own eyes at all than be presented with such a flat and half-assed and boring token representation of it. And that's how I feel about every nation on that continent. I don't care if we never get around to all of them, but don't pretend that we need to start looking outward because we're running out of potential content in Thedas proper. If that's the case then it's because Bioware has squandered it for the sake of expediency, and then there's no reason to believe that whatever other lands they dream up for potential sequels will be worth visiting either.


I couldn't disagree more on each and every count. Quality over quantity. Better one setting that's fully developed than two that aren't. I can live with Rivain and the Anderfels and Nevarra having to exist forever in our imaginations if it means that Tevinter is full of expansive and interesting locales we can actually immerse ourselves in, rather than just letting us take a peek at the supposed highlights before rushing off to the next equally restricted or empty destination, like Inquisition did.

b.  With the caveat that if we go to multiple nations then each nation could get its own map...which sounds problematic as all hell but I do suspect this is where they could go.  Or yeah kind of how the Witcher does it I guess...

Thanks to this all I've now...


... started it again.

Rivain sounds rather boring, as does Antiva. REMEMBER THE CROWS? Everyone talks like Zevran. Not-Italy is starting to wear me down. 

I'm surprised by the lack of interest in Rivain. I think if done well it would be a fascinating setting. A cultural melting pot of traditional Rivaini culture (seers, matriarchal society), Qunari invasion, Chantry invasion. The Avvar seem very popular with their approach to interacting with spirits, which seems similar to how the seers operate. Voluntary possession and partnership rather than forcibly commanding spirits like the Circles.

I don't want to visit Rivain and have it be a simplistic pirate land with Raiders of the Waking sea all being Isabella 2.0.

Personally, I would not like to discover that beyond thedas there are other great civilizations, mysterious and unknown continents to explore and so on.


Firs of all, Thedas is a beautiful setting, and we have seen perhaps 15%? of it (80% Ferelden, 15-20% Free Marches, 20-30% Orlais, and nothing more).

It has its internal balances of power, its delicate and fascinating relationships of forces, peoples, 10 nations, hundreds of factions... and beyond all of that, the mysteries of the fade, of the deep roads, of the abyss.
There is a LOT to do, to see, to write about.
Theoretically, if you're a good writer and a good world builder, the more you go in-depth with the setting (thus making it more similar to the real world complexity) the more fascinating the stories become.

secondly, I also like the feeling that what we are doing has an incredible importance. If we do not stop the blight, the entire world will fall. If we don't stop Solas, everything will change; the struggle for freedom of mages is a struggle for the very conception of man and freedom in the whole world.

To discover that Thedas is just one place among many, maybe not even the most important... I don't know, it would be a bit disappointing.
I remain convinced that ME.A was a failure also because bioware decided to abandon the milky way (a fantastic, incredible lore, full of potential and awesome stories to tell) for a new galaxy for which nobody had any particular interest... and without even trying to make the new galaxy unique and original, but by transplanting the usual human, krogan, asari, salarian.


Introducing in the dragon age lore not Asia (with not China, not Persia, not India, not mongol empire etc) and maybe not Africa and not maya after that would be really... I don't know, sad? Definitely premature.

Of course, there must be something beyond the sea. The executors, the native land of qunari (which may have become uninhabitable), the ancient Voshai who used to trade with Anderfles (but there seems to have been a great cataclysm, so maybe it ended up at the bottom of the sea like an Atlantis.)... that's ok.
BUT I hope that these places (which would be interesting to visit) are some sort of ultima thule, faraway places, relatively small, with their own history and civilization (for example, if the land of executors is like some a kind of feudal isolationist Japan, could be fun, nothing against asian people in Thedas) and not ONE OTHER CONTINENTs with 15 nations each, other races, with their own mega-super threats, etc...

I hope that the center of the world, of events, the beating heart of the setting, where the big game is played, remains thedas.

Heh.

Imagine the poor bastards on the other side of the world who might not even realize what elves are, who have no idea that a bunch of weirdoes on some random continent have been poking and prodding at the foundations of reality for a thousand years, causing one near-world-ending disaster after another, are currently in the process of waking up primordial earth gods, and one of whom is about to globally turn the laws of nature inside out.

Somewhere there's a pseudo-Asian people who have been celebrating being rid of those "Qunari" lunatics for 400 years, who are going to have one strange harvest season while we deal with Solas.