Dragon Age: Origins lead writer says Shale was saved partly by his real-life burning hatred for pigeon poop: 'I wrote like the angry, angry wind'
One of my favourite companions in Dragon Age: Origins is Shale. She's a deadpan, dry-voiced golem with a hatred for pigeons that does credit to her dwarven, grudge-bearing heritage. She was also a day-one DLC character but, while discussing her, series creator and lead writer David Gaider reveals that was mostly due to a lack of time, and the fact she was downright impossible to write.
During a recent saga of Bluesky threads shared by the writer on the series' many companions, Gaider reveals that Shale was initially the darling of a BioWare writer who wanted to bring her stony-ness to life: «Shale was initially taken on by Jay Turner, then one of our junior writers,» Gaider explains. «Jay had an idea to make Shale more of a robot, an emotionless automaton killer… think HK-47, but without the layer of sarcasm. I was leery, and told Jay he'd have to be very careful. 'Emotionless' can very quickly turn into 'boring', after all, unless you're VERY careful. But Jay was determined.»
Things, unfortunately, didn't go so great—and Gaider regards his decision to let Turner jump into the deep end as a mistake: «There's been a couple of times in my career when I've let a junior convince me with their enthusiasm to take on something my experience said they shouldn't. And then watch their confidence crumble despite every effort I made to reassure them it was OK … It felt flat. Jay tried numerous revisions, but the issue wasn't his ability—it was the concept.»
The duty to spin up the now-beloved golem into an actual character fell into Gaider's hands. «I recall being a bit bitter about the whole thing,» he adds, noting that he'd been moved to a window with a god-awful view he resented. One, importantly, overlooking a HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) unit that pigeons would gather around to escape the cruel winter temperatures. I'm just going to let his rant play out unaltered, because it's a thing of beauty:
«They pooped all over everything—there was this alcove
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