Dragon Age: The Veilguardis taking a more stylized approach to its graphics than previous entries, to some degree, and this has resulted in common franchise enemies like demons and Darkspawn looking differently. However, there is an explanation for each case. The former seems to be tied to the weakening of the Veil, their associations with strong emotions, and so forth, whereas the latter is thanks to the newly-released Blighted Elven Gods ofDragon Age: The Veilguard, Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain.
BioWare recently gave fans a look at 22-minutes ofDragon Age: The Veilguardgameplay (via IGN), focused on a Mage Rook and a personal quest for Davrin, the Grey Warden Companion. During this showcase, creative director John Epler and game director Corinne Busche provided some commentary on the events, the location, the Darkspawn, and more. Specifically, they both mentioned how the changes to the Darkspawn are due toGhilan’nain, the God of Monsters.
When it comes to Ghilan’nain, there are plenty of lore theories out there, but the two known elements of her character is that she has a complicated relationship with Andruil and that she conducted numerous experiments. It’s a popular theory that Ghilan’nain created the Qunari, likely through experiments of the Kossith and Dragons, and numerous other abominations can likely be attributed to her. Notably, Epler explained that Ghila’nain has experimented with the Blight before and the changes seen to theDarkspawn inDragon Age: The Veilguardis due to her manipulation and experimentation on these Darkspawn. Busche would add that Ghilan’nain uses the Blight as a medium to warp the Darkspawn, and given what has been shown so far, it’s an exciting turn of events - one that Thedas is not ready for.
The gameplay video shows players in aGrey Wardenencampment, where NPCs and the devs revealed that the Blight is more organic and sentient-acting than seen in previousDragon Agegames. Specifically, the Grey Wardens have noticed that the Blight is acting differently than they’d expect or that history would suggest, and it stands to reason that the connection between the Blight and these Elven Gods still have a few twists and turns ahead for fans.
Of course, fans have about two months to wait before they likely learn more about this, asDragon Age: The Veilguardreleases on October 31. In the meantime, fans can expect BioWare to continue showing off more gameplay, more features, and other exciting news pertaining to the world of Thedas.
