From the developers...
We designed Dragon Age: Origins with the goal of creating of a world with weight and history. A place that felt both lived in and steeped in its own past, much of it forgotten. In the following pages, you'll go in-depth with the world of Thedas.
You'll learn secrets and lore about the stout nation of Ferelden, the excesses of Orlais, the mysterious nature of the Fade and much more.
Of course, not everything you will read in these pages is true, in an absolute, historical sense. Much of the world's history is shrouded from even the greatest scholars, and many of the facts you will learn below represent the best guesses of the finest minds of the Chantry and Circle of Magi.
Still, you hold an accurate representation of the current trends in thought, philosophy, history and religion at the time of Dragon Age: Origins.
Whether you're an aspiring module-maker with the toolset open before you, a game master looking for more in-depth information about the world, or simply a curious soul, welcome to the Thedas!
—The Dragon Age: Origins Team
Thedas
Thedas is bounded to the east by the Amaranthine Ocean, to the west by the Trishan and the Hunterhorn Mountains, to the south by the snowy wastes that lie beyond the Korcari Wilds, and to the north by the Donarks.
The word "Thedas" is Tevinter in origin, originally used to refer to lands that bordered the Imperium. As the Imperium lost its stranglehold on conquered nations, more and more lands became Thedas, until finally the name came to apply to the entire continent.
The northern part of Thedas is divided amongst the Anderfels, the Tevinter Imperium, Antiva, and Rivain, with the islands of Par Vollen and Seheron held by the Qunari just off the coast.
Central Thedas consists of the vast stretch of city-states known as the Free Marches, as well as the nations of Nevarra and Orlais, with Ferelden to the southeast.
What lies beyond the snowy wastes of the south is a mystery. The freezing temperatures and barren land have kept even the most intrepid cartographers at bay.
Similarly, the far western reaches of the Anderfels have never been fully explored, even by the Anders themselves. It's unknown if the dry steppes are shadowed by mountains, or if they extend all the way to a nameless sea.
There must be other lands, continents, or islands, perhaps across the Amaranthine or north of Par Vollen, for the Qunari arrived in Thedas from somewhere, but beyond that deduction nothing is known.
The idea that "the world" consists solely of the lands we know about will one day be disproved, and no doubt much to the collective dismay for the citizens of Thedas.
History
Long ago, the land of Thedas was populated only sparsely by the elves and dwarves. The elves, immortal beings for whom time passed without consequence and who lived spread out on the surface lands, existed in tandem with the forests and nature.
The dwarves, meanwhile, were content to live beneath the mountains in an underground kingdom that spanned all of Thedas, shaping stone and mining the enchanted metal known as lyrium.
And so both races continued until the humans came. Where they came from is unknown, and the humans themselves would deny that they ever came from anywhere else, but both the elves and the dwarves claim that there was once a time when humans did not walk the land.
The elves encountered the humans first and found this upstart race of quick-lived mortals to be too angry and too impatient.
Horrified, the elves withdrew from human contact as the humans spread quickly across Thedas.
Humans formed the great Tevinter Imperium, a land ruled by tyrannical magisters who worshipped the mysterious Old Gods, ancient dragons that, according to legend, had once challenged the might of the Maker and thus were imprisoned by him forever beneath the ground - and yet who still whispered in the ears of men from their prisons and taught them forbidden knowledge.
These magisters learned magic from the Old Gods and became powerful, demanding blood sacrifices from their subjects, worship of the Old Gods, and tribute from the dwarves and the elves.
Eventually the greed of their Imperium grew so great that they destroyed the elven homeland of Arlathan, enslaving the entire elven race and using their usurped wealth to rule all of Thedas.
And so the Tevinter Imperium ruled until its might was challenged by the first Blight. In their pride, the Tevinter magisters succeeded in opening a gateway into the Golden City - heaven itself, an unreachable place within the heart of the dream realm known as the Fade.
However, humanity was never meant to walk in heaven, and with each step, these men corrupted it.
It became the Black City, and the magisters in turn became twisted and tainted by their own sin, transformed into the darkspawn and thrown back down to Earth by the Maker.
They had become creatures that shied from the light and multiplied into terrible hordes in the underground tunnels of the dwarves.
These darkspawn sought out and found one of the Old Gods in its underground prison and infected it with their taint, and the great dragon arose as the first archdemon.
This creature led the darkspawn horde to the surface, bringing the nations of Thedas to their knees. The people of the Imperium turned to the other Old Gods, praying for protection, but none was forthcoming.
Humanity was brought to the brink of destruction, and only a newly formed order known as the Grey Wardens managed to defeat the archdemon and end the Blight.
The Imperium was greatly weakened, however, and it did not have the strength to defend itself when a great army of barbarians invaded from the south, led by the prophet Andraste.
Andraste proclaimed that magic should exist to serve humanity rather than rule over it. She railed against the magisters and claimed the Old Gods were lies, insisting that the Maker was the One True God of all humanity.
Her teachings spread quickly, and much of the Imperium crumbled before her armies. Andraste died a martyr, and around her legend grew a cult, and with it came the Chant of Light: a chant filled with Andraste's teachings that her priests claimed must be sung from every corner of the world until the Maker forgave humanity for his prophet's death and turned the world into a paradise.
As this cult grew, so were the Old Gods quickly forgotten and abandoned. They had forsaken the Imperium and betrayed its people in its hour of need, and so the old temples quickly fell by the wayside of history.
It was not long before another of the Old Gods awoke to lead the darkspawn in the Second Blight and plunge the world into terror once again.
The greatest military mind in Thedas, Emperor Drakon of Orlais, became humanity's best defender; he pushed back the darkspawn hordes before his armies, and as his own power grew, he spread the cult of Andraste.
The cult was known as "the Chantry," and during those dark years, it became the dominant religion even in the old Imperium. It forbade the use of blood magic and mind control; however, the Circle of Magi was formed to allow magic to be harnessed against the darkspawn while ensuring that its mages were carefully watched.
Between the Circle of Magi, Emperor Drakon, and a rejuvenated order of Grey Wardens, the Second Blight was thrown back and the dreaded archdemon that led it finally defeated.
Over the centuries to come, two more Blights would arise, threaten humanity, and be defeated.
In the last Blight, the Grey Wardens finally struck such a blow against the darkspawn that everyone was certain that their threat was finally over. The nations of humanity prospered until yet another race suddenly appeared and invaded the continent: the Qunari, a race of bronze giants with an alien religion that compels them to dominate all others.
In a great war, they invaded deep into the heart of Thedas. Humanity was forced to band together to bring their invasion to a halt and finally pushed them back.
For centuries, there has been an unsteady peace with the Qunari, allowing the nations of Thedas to once again rebuild and prosper. Only recently have the Qunari stepped up their battles against the remnants of the Tevinter Imperium, and their war has escalated to the point where it threatens to once again engulf the rest of Thedas in conflict.
Thus the darkspawn are a forgotten threat, the idea that they might now resurface again after four centuries disregarded. The Grey Wardens insist, however, that another Blight lies on the horizon.
With the Grey Warden numbers having declined greatly and humanity at large giving little credibility to the return of such a threat, the lands of Thedas may be in store for their greatest challenge yet.