Who is the face of Dragon Age?
It’s a simple question with a tricky answer because there’s no obvious candidate.
There’s no Commander Shepard through-line running through the series.
Each game has had a different protagonist.
And now there’s Rook in Dragon Age: Veilguard.
Heck, even the game’s main companions have changed.
Though there is one amongst them who could fit the bill: Varric.
Varric’s face apparently verifies something as Dragon Age.
There’s only one problem with this: he should be dead.
This dwarf shouldn’t be alive, yet somehow he is.
But for how long?
Before we go there, let’s rewind to Dragon Age 2.
This set-up even continues in the game’s two downloadable add-ons, Legacy and Mark of the Assassin.
But there was going to be a third add-on where this would change.
“It had the confrontation with Corypheus and the whole thing.
“He was the unreliable narrator, right?”
“I felt like it had to end with him.
And with his death, the story ends.
And I felt that’s appropriate for Dragon Age 2’s arc.”
Which is how Corypheus suddenly became the main villain in Inquisition, and how Varric managed to stay alive.
It didn’t stop Gaider trying to kill him again, though.
“I tried to kill him in Inquisition,” he told me.
“I think mainly because I didn’t get to do it in [DA2].
And everyone was like, ‘But the Inquisitor isn’t Hawke!
It lacks the same meaning.’
And I was like, ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.'”
Still, it was a difficult thing to let go of.
And I swear, when I come back, I will be ready to go.'”
He was true to his word, but he still wasn’t entirely done trying to kill Varric.
“The threat of Corypheus after Haven was never truly realised,“Gaider tweeted.
“An attack on Skyhold would have upped the ante.
And with that departure, you’d think Varric might have breathed a sigh of relief.
But look again at the Dragon Age: Veilguard gameplay trailer - specifically, the end of it.
I’ll pick it up here from around 14 minutes in as I draw attention to what happens.
Varric: “All right, I’ll take it from here.”
Rook: Are you sure?
You three just keep the demons off me while I talk to him.
Scout Harding: Varric, Solas isn’t going to stop just because an old friend asks nicely.
Varric: Solas needs someone to sell him another option, to help him justify changing his mind.
Rook: Come on, Varric, we didn’t come all this way just to talk to him.
Varric: He was my friend, Rook, I’ve got to have a go at reach him.
But if he won’t listen to me, he’ll hear from Bianca.
Pillars crumble in the background and dramatic music swells as Varric moves from cover to approach Solas.
Varric: Rook, take care of the team for me.
That’s the first big tell, a rousing sequence and dramatic farewell.
The action then continues as Rook looks for another way to interrupt Solas’ ritual.
Varric doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere convincing Solas to stop.
Solas: The Veil is a wound inflicted upon this world.
It must be healed.
Varric: By drowning the world in demons?
Solas: I have taken precautions to minimise the damage, Varric.
Varric: Minimise the-?
People are dying right now.
Behind Solas' back, Varric raises his crossbow Bianca.
Solas turns and destroys Bianca with a magical blast, and the crossbow tumbles down the stairway in pieces.
Solas: People are always dying.
It is what they do.
A loaded comment, perhaps?
And it’s a significant moment seeing Varric’s beloved crossbow broken in two.
What good will he be without it?
Rook and party are thrown back by the force of it and Varric, suddenly, is gone.
He’s not on the steps nor anywhere in sight.
The trailer ends as Rook watches huge creatures appear behind Solas from the rip in the Veil.
What happened to Varric?
Consider the beats outlined above: a dramatic farewell, an iconic weapon destroyed, a missing-in-action ending.
That he stood for something and that Rook should too - a passing of the mantle moment.
And then, with a wide-eyed gasp, he’ll breathe his last and Varric will be no more.
