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Dragon Age 4 locations confirmed

Fade in.

BioWare's fourth big Dragon Age game will be mainly set in Tevinter, an as-yet-unvisited land within the franchise's world of Thedas.

That's according to the studio's hulking BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development book, which I picked up over the weekend.

Cover image for YouTube videoThe Next Dragon Age Official Teaser Trailer - 2020 Game Awards

For fans of the Dragon Age series, this confirmation will come as little surprise. The location was set up in the final scene of Dragon Age Inquisition's excellent Trespasser expansion - although this was over six years ago now, and many other plans for the future of the series have changed in the interim.

But while the plan to visit Tevinter was expected, more concept art within the book suggests the next Dragon Age will include other fresh lands as well.

Artwork of a glittering city surrounded by water almost certainly shows Antiva City, the capital of Antiva, an area which borders Tevinter to the east. Concept art for an Antivan Crow is also shown; a theatrical assassin "celebrated for their mastery of stylish slaying" who wears an elaborate mask, wields a glowing sword, and has several actual crow sidekicks.

There's also an image of the skeletal Mourn Watch, who "guard Thedas from occult threats" and hang out in a Necropolis. While this location isn't further identified, necropolises are used in Nevarra, another area of Thedas, whose citizens are known for mummifying their dead. Nevarra borders Tevinter to the south.

Other images show The Lords of Fortune, a treasure hunters' guild based in various places but founded in Rivain (to the northeast of Tevinter), and The Deep Roads, the dwarven tunnels which span all of Thedas.

In the years since Inquisition's release, the upcoming Dragon Age 4 (which may wind up just being titled "Dragon Age" again) has gone through a couple of reboots, while key staff connected to the project have changed behind the scenes.

Indeed, the BioWare book is already out of date as it lists long-time Dragon Age contributor Mark Darrah still as executive producer. Darrah and BioWare studio boss Casey Hudson both left in December last year, with leadership of the next Dragon Age game now in the hands of Blizzard and Anthem veteran Christian Dailey.

But, as it stands now, the project looks to be back focused on a big single-player RPG filled with familiar and fan-favourite faces to continue the ongoing narrative threads of the series so far.

A trailer released at the Game Awards last year was narrated by Dragon Age 2 sidekick Varric, while concept art for the game released at Gamescom 2020 appears to show other returning faces like Isabella and Tevinter native Dorian. And, of course, the much loved/hated egg/villian Solas/The Dread Wolf continues to loom large.

BioWare has never put a release date on Dragon Age 4, though EA has previously suggested it won't arrive until after April 2022. Look forward to visiting Tevinter and some of its neighbouring lands then.