When we approached putting together the Dragon Age setting and story, we wanted something darker and more mature than what we have traditionally worked on. But what does that mean, exactly? To some people, “dark” might simply refer to gore and violence. It might refer to a world filled with horrors where heroism never pays off and unhappy endings are the order of the day. It might refer to adult content and nudity or, if you prefer to be literal, areas bathed in shadow to punctuate the serious subject matter. Dragon Age: Origins has many of the above elements, but when we say “dark” what we are referring to are difficult choices.
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This isn’t to say that there aren’t such things as good and evil in the Dragon Age world. The darkspawn are evil, after all, and you are capable of doing good – but sometimes that means having to work harder to achieve it.
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What players do in Dragon Age: Origins is ultimately heroic (as this is “dark heroic fantasy” and not simply “dark fantasy”), but players are free to determine how they achieve their goals and what they consider to be a worthy sacrifice.​