The Origins

Dragon Age: Origins begins with one of six playable opening chapters, the one you play based on the race and class of character you choose, providing a unique background for your character before they head out into the main story.

The Hero of Ferelden can be part of human nobility facing a tragic series of losses, a castless dwarf struggling to make it in the city of Orzamar, or a mage evicted from the magic school they’ve known their entire life, and those starkly different origin points are only half of the options. These origins define how your hero will be viewed in the dozens of hours that follow, and also function as a starting point for how a new player will view the franchise. I started as a Mage when I first played Dragon Age: Origins in 2009, and have always felt like a veteran of the Circle at heart. Future Dragon Age games would implement this concept of different player backgrounds with Inquisition and The Veilguard, but none would do it as thoroughly—Origins was the only time I got to see that history play out in real-time.