Dragon Age All the derivative stuff in the Dragon Age setting

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

As we all know, DA is a hodge-podge of elements lifted wholesale from other popular fantasy/fiction settings, as well as real-life history, but some are more obvious than others. How about a list of stuff they copied from other sources:

Darkspawn: derived from Shadowspawn in the Wheel of Time.
Tevinter Imperium: the fantasy equivalent of Rome, but the name is almost certainly based on "Neverwinter".
Lyrium: reminds me strongly of spice melange from the Dune series.
Chantry: fantasy equivalent of Christianity, with some WoT-style matriarchy themes thrown in for fun and diversity points.
Andraste: if Jeanne d'Arc was a prophetess.
The Maker: the God of deism, another parallel with the WoT.
The Fade: a fairly standard-issue dreamworld, which seems to also be lifted from WoT.
Mages getting routinely possessed by demons: apparently, this is from old-school Warhammer.
Elves and dwarves: standard Tolkien stuff with some grimdark bells and whistles.
Qunari: I have no clue where they got this from. Their society seems to be an extreme form of collectivist totalitarianism (commufascism) with some diversity and wokeness thrown in to make the libtard authors' wish-fulfillment.
Dragon gods of Tevinter that get corrupted into "archdemons": no clue, this is extremely incoherent and was never explained properly.

 

[DraQ]

It would be more interesting and fun to track influences in some better setting, TBH.

 

[Erebus]

A list of all the things in Dragon Age that show even a modicum of creativity would be much quicker.

 

[Lagole Gon]

It's not really criminally derivative, except maybe ASoIaF stuff, like Grey Wardens/Night Watch.

 

[Harthwain]

To be honest, most of it is so generic there is no telling where it was picked from.

Elves and dwarves: standard Tolkien stuff with some grimdark bells and whistles.

Actually, the elves are closer to Sapkowsky's Witcher universe in this case (Dragon Age even has "wild" elves, if I recall correctly).

Lyrium: reminds me strongly of spice melange from the Dune series.

Not even close.

 

[JarlFrank]

It would be more interesting and fun to track influences in some better setting, TBH.

Arcanum: gnomes are jews

 

[luj1]

DA is one of the most forgettable average meh franchises. The whole Dark Age is like that.

 

[Mikeal]

As we all know, DA is a hodge-podge of elements lifted wholesale from other popular fantasy/fiction settings, as well as real-life history, but some are more obvious than others. How about a list of stuff they copied from other sources:

Darkspawn: derived from Shadowspawn in the Wheel of Time.
Tevinter Imperium: the fantasy equivalent of Rome, but the name is almost certainly based on "Neverwinter".
Lyrium: reminds me strongly of spice melange from the Dune series.
Chantry: fantasy equivalent of Christianity, with some WoT-style matriarchy themes thrown in for fun and diversity points.
Andraste: if Jeanne d'Arc was a prophetess.
The Maker: the God of deism, another parallel with the WoT.
The Fade: a fairly standard-issue dreamworld, which seems to also be lifted from WoT.
Mages getting routinely possessed by demons: apparently, this is from old-school Warhammer.
Elves and dwarves: standard Tolkien stuff with some grimdark bells and whistles.
Qunari: I have no clue where they got this from. Their society seems to be an extreme form of collectivist totalitarianism (commufascism) with some diversity and wokeness thrown in to make the libtard authors' wish-fulfillment.
Dragon gods of Tevinter that get corrupted into "archdemons": no clue, this is extremely incoherent and was never explained properly.

Wasn't Tevinter more like a Persian Empire?

 

[Tigranes]

OP is just a random rorschach scrawl of "what X reminded me of".

Why is the name Tevinter Imperium "almost certainly" based on Neverwinter? Who knows.

Oh look, an extremely generic Big God & dreamworld you can find in 8 million different settings, must be WoT! Did I tell you I read WoT last night?

Look, a 90% "collective totalitarianism" society! But it must be the libtards that I hate lololol

Also fails to mention, uh, a nation they literally called Orlais

 

[NJClaw]

Mages: big gays

 

[Avarize]

Deism is concept lifted from WoT?
What similarities do you find between the Chantry and Christianity besides aesthetics? What are the actual relevant doctrinal comparisons, the stuff that matters?
Aren't the shadowspawn themselves quite similar to Tolkien, particularly Morgoth's forces?

This analysis on the level of people describing Starship Troopers' world as fascist because it's a militaristic culture.

 

[JarlFrank]

Can we just agree that Dragon Age has no original ideas of its own and call it a day?

 

[Nano]

Can we just agree that Dragon Age has no original ideas of its own and call it a day?

Nothing is original. Shouldn't you know this as a creative person?

 

[JarlFrank]

Can we just agree that Dragon Age has no original ideas of its own and call it a day?

Nothing is original. Shouldn't you know this as a creative person?

Some things are more blatantly derivative than others, and the "nothing is original everything is a copy" is a lame postmodern meme trying to justify milquetoast storytelling.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

The Maker: the God of deism, another parallel with the WoT.

Deism is concept lifted from WoT?

Why are you incapable of basic reading comprehension, moron?

Wasn't Tevinter more like a Persian Empire?

The tribe that they are descended from (and one of their major cities) is literally called Neromenian, lol. And they use Latin heavily. And they are an Imperium, led by an Archon (Greek term, but the real-life Roman empire had plenty of Greco-Roman fusion), and a Senate (plus Magisterium).

Yeah, sounds like Persia alright.

It's not really criminally derivative, except maybe ASoIaF stuff, like Grey Wardens/Night Watch.

Oh missed this one, a very obvious derivation.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Look, a 90% "collective totalitarianism" society! But it must be the libtards that I hate lololol

Right, because a medieval totalitarian commufascist culture that denies individualism would also naturally be tranny-positive, as we learned in DA:I. Transgenderism flows so naturally from their core concept, I must really be hallucinating things to see libturdation injected into it artificially by woke bioware writers!!

Kill yourself.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Wasn't Tevinter more like a Persian Empire?

Eastern Roman Empire rather due to its Byzantine politics, different interpretation of the faith than Orlais (notFrance) & co. (notWest) and the whole decayed empire shtick.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Can we just agree that Dragon Age has no original ideas of its own and call it a day?

Nothing is original. Shouldn't you know this as a creative person?

Some things are more blatantly derivative than others, and the "nothing is original everything is a copy" is a lame postmodern meme trying to justify milquetoast storytelling.

Wh40k is heavily derivative (and a hodgepodge of influences at that), yet that does not make it 'milquetoast storytelling'. Dragon Age Origins laid a good foundation for a low, dark fantasy sort of setting. Alas, the sequels didn't really do it justice.

 

[fantadomat]

It would be more interesting and fun to track influences in some better setting, TBH.

 

[Semiurge]

• Alistair: the "once and future king".

It would be more interesting and fun to track influences in some better setting, TBH.

Wait, is that a modern-day eyebrow piercing she has? I hope it's modded.

 

[Palomides]

Wasn't Tevinter more like a Persian Empire?

From what I know, it was originally meant to be inspired by Byzantine Greece, but looking at contemporary sources it has become more like ancient Rome.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

A list of all the things in Dragon Age that show even a modicum of creativity would be much quicker.

This.

Some things are more blatantly derivative than others, and the "nothing is original everything is a copy" is a lame postmodern meme trying to justify milquetoast storytelling.

Also this.

Was Wheel of Time really their inspiration? That's like... scraping the bottom of the bottom of the barrel.

I remember being surprised they didn't have a pantheon of Gods and elves were slaves (?), but it's been a while.

I've never understood why anyone thinks this series is cool, but it's a fitting tombstone for Patrick Weekes' career.