UNVEILING THE SHADOWS: A ROGUE'S JOURNEY IN DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD

Envision your way of adventuring writing itself into the fabric of the ever-expanding Dragon Age multiverse. This could be the tagline of the roleplaying video game series that, quite possibly, best captures the spirit of the road, the rituals of a wandering troupe and the sense of discovery that is central to the experience of adventure. Few genres of literature create space for readers to become the creators of the worlds they’re engaged in than the subgenre of adventure fantasy. For many roleplaying games, this is doubly true; Dragon Age combines story and opportunity to create narratives in both senses of the word. The release of the latest chapter in the Dragon Age multiverse, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, brings a series of adventures into focus for one rogue at a time. From the very early days of tabletop roleplaying games to the myriad ways in which life is complex in the European high Middle Ages that’s the setting for Dragon Age, rogues have figured prominently as characters who cross boundaries and bridges. Bouncing from city to forest and from forest to city, from winter to spring and from summer to fall, from light to dark and from dark to light, rogues function like a cultural nomos – a living law – that structures the adventure into a series of new explorations. The Veilguard represents BioWare’s new direction in the multiverse of farewell.

THE NEXUS OF CREATION: A ROGUE IS BORN

As a rogue, my character is in the eye of the storm that rages in the skies above the city of Minrathous, where demons butcher the Tevinter Imperium’s legions. You play as a band of heroes breaking through the stalemate of a massive war. As far as all of this goes, the rogue is the center of attention. She is a palette. Character creation in Dragon Age: The Veilguard did not simply offer the ability to tweak my character’s eyes from turquoise to grey. It offered the opportunity to distinguish my rogue from the rest, not by what class she is, but by how I chose to play her. The added customisation made the rogue literally my own – not just a sprite on a screen, but the avatar of my strategic guile.

A DANCE WITH DEMONS: THE ROGUE IN COMBAT

The streets of Minrathous are where the rogue does her deadly ballet, sickening knife attacks and powerful arrow shots flitting in and out of range, keeping enemy Shades at bay. The rogue is one of the most vital classes, since her placement in the game’s frantic action matters most – using abilities at the right moment, from surprise attacks to staggering an enemy, are important for victory, as are target placement and tactics. The thrill of the hunt, the ambush, or turning the tide against impossible odds: the rogue player experiences these.

THROUGH THE VEIL: THE ARTISTIC MASTERY OF MINRATHOUS

BioWare’s commitment to world-building is most evident in Minrathous. When the rogue is there, he is not traveling through a municipality but through a living, breathing organism that glowers in the heavy shadows and abounds with magic. The cold formal beauty of Minrathous, from its cold, terraced architecture to its splintered skies, is a narrative space perfect for the rogue. Each turn of the corner and slant of the shadow is an element in the tale, with the rogue the subject of the sentence.

A SYMPHONY OF SHADOWS: CHARACTER INTERACTIONS AND THE ROGUE'S ROLE

Even the limited forms of dialogue found in a game as recent as the 2009 console RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard represent a huge leap forward in character dynamics. Multiple choices for character response often turn every conversation into a kind of conversation chess game. For the rogue, every interaction is less like a chat over a beer and more like a duel fought entirely with words. If choices must be made, allegiances forged, and everything that happens might be related to those choices, then the rogue is no longer just ‘a guy hanging out in the shadows’. The rogue becomes instead the sort of character with whom a story of significant events can be contracted: a character whose choices matter.

THE STRATEGY BEHIND SILENCE: TACTICAL WHEEL AND THE ROGUE

The tactical wheel returns, pulling the breaks on the chaos to thoughtfully focus on tactics and direction. For the rogue, the tactical wheel is a crowning grace. It is about making the most of the chaos, about every attack, every movement, being deliberate and meaningful. The rogue’s place among friends, the player’s fingers on the tactical wheel, can shift the balance of a battle and from there change the course of the game altogether.

THE JOURNEY AHEAD: A ROGUE'S DESTINY

By the close of the prologue, players have been perched on the brink of a seafaring voyage that will surely define their game as they embark on the epic story of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. It’s well-known that the rogue offers a spectrum of skills – lethal, tactical and narrative – but rarely do we consider the ways in which those skills are employed outside of gameplay. The rogue’s agency is not only bound to the in-game world, but also extends to the narrative beings that they create along their journey.

UNDERSTANDING THE ROGUE

She’s not just the rogue class itself; rather, she epitomises the overarching themes of the Dragon Age: The Veilguard – change, flexibility, and choice. The rogue’s lineage goes back to the very first Dragon Age, as it has been a staple for fan-favourite characters and an unusual access point to the world and lore of the game. In the Veilguard, players will be lit by magic and cloaked by shadows as the rogue leads the way. It’s a world where no choice is forgotten, every shadow has depth, and there’s a rogue story for each tale. If in Thief the rogue’s story comes to a tragic close, in Dragon Age: The Veilguard you compete that legacy. The publisherxxxi notes that ‘betrayal and vengeance are threads that bind the course of [the] rogue’s career’, threading a story from the rogue’s beginnings in the streets of Minrathous and beyond, where his own secrets might well decide whether the world he lives in will be saved or fall. They thus make the rogue not only a potential class, but a kind of guiding bat-signal for what your adventure might be. Here be legends. It’s time to walk into the shadows.