BioWare considered bringing the hero of Dragon Age: Origins back for Veilguard, but with a horrifying catch: 'Do not let her see me like this'
BioWare art lead Matt Rhodes just keeps sharing explosive Dragon Age development details and alternate storylines on Twitter, all with accompanying concept art to boot. This latest revelation might just beat murdering Origins' Sten in a draft version of the Trespasser DLC—it seems BioWare considered bringing our Origins protagonist back for The Veilguard, but they would have been sickened and horribly disfigured by the Grey Wardens' Blight-based Calling.
Rhodes shared a few concept pieces of the Anderfels region of Thedas, home to the Wardens' Weisshaupt Fortress and the Hossberg Wetlands zone of Veilguard. The third piece is the really shocking one, showing a cloaked figure wrapped in bandages, their skin mottled and purple-grey where exposed. They're sitting on a throne with a Warden bodyguard posted behind them, and this character no longer seems able to speak, instead relying on a quill and stack of parchments to communicate. They're holding one such message up to the viewer: «Don't let her see me like this.»
«Nobody else seemed to like the 'leper king' direction, but I thought it'd be cool,» Rhodes wrote in the caption, referencing the historical Baldwin of Jerusalem who was memorably depicted by Edward Norton in Kingdom of Heaven and also inspired the Leper in Darkest Dungeon. «The Hero of Ferelden has been putting off 'The Calling.' The Blight takes more each year, but there's still too much to do on the surface.»
This would have been an absolute bombshell if it had made it into The Veilguard. Dragon Age's Blight-fighting Grey Wardens take a little nibble of the stuff to get their powers. It means they're able to kill Archdemons, but it also starts a roughly 20-year countdown until they hear The Calling and start transforming into maddened ghouls. Once it looks like their ticket's been punched, a Warden's supposed to travel underground to the Darkspawn's home turf and go out fighting. In Inquisition, world state codex stuff had the Hero of Ferelden out
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