The game's title takes its name from the fact that there are six distinct prologues that you can choose from, and each can set up repercussions that echo throughout the rest of the game. Many RPGs will let you create different characters, but they all follow the same narrative more or less. In Dragon Age, the choice of prologue is just the first of many choices that will shape the experience.

We've been playing around with the origin stories in Dragon Age and it's kind of staggering at how complex and flexible the entire story is. The origin story you choose plays a big role, but after that there are many life and death decisions being made that affect the course of your game. It's safe to say that you could probably play the game several times and you'd have a remarkably different experience in terms of companion characters and story each time. Over the next few weeks we're going to highlight three of the origin stories, starting today with the human nobles.
[...]
Human mages are an entirely different origins story, which means that they have a different starting point and plot. Not surprising, but the character creation system is built off of the one found in Mass Effect
[...]
The dialogue system is similar to Mass Effect's, though the interface is different.
[...]
After the initial conversation you get your first character companion, your loyal warhound that you get to name yourself.
[...]
After killing the rats...​