The following article contains minor spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Summary
There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the fate of Varric inDragon Age: The Veilguard. Theopening sequenceof The Veilguard in Minrathous, released byBioWare, sees Varric in a dangerous situation before a (presumed) explosion fades to the game’s logo.
Since Varric isn’t one of the companions in The Veilguard, and he hasn’t appeared in any of the promotional material that takes place after the game’s opening, many fans suspect Varric perishes near the beginning of The Veilguard.
After all, Veilguard is shaping up to be a very consequential entry in the series, the culmination of decades of foreshadowing and narrative set-up. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if BioWare were to sacrifice a beloved character to raise the stakes of the conflict between the Veilguard and the reawakened Elven gods. We saw a similar strategy inMass Effect 3with the death of Thane Krios, after all.
There’s Power In Stories
However, agameplay snippetreleased by IGN may have given us valuable information on Varric’s fate. Though the accompanying commentary doesn’t address it, approximately 4 minutes into the video, Varric’s icon is visible on the minimap.
The video takes us through the Veilguard’s ‘hub’ area of the Lighthouse, and icons on the minimap indicate where a character is so you may speak with them. The Lighthouse only becomes available after the explosion we see in the opening mission because it exists in a special pocket of the Fade.
This bodes very well for Varric Tethras as he’s at least alive during this sequence and he can be interacted with. Barring some new Fade ghost shenanigans, everyone’s favourite Dwarf may yet live to advise Rook and his merry band.
Of course, this raises other questions. If Varric is alive, why isn’t he a companion? We see his trusty crossbow Bianca get destroyed by Solas, but I doubt this would be enough to keep him out of the field. There’s also a chance that Varric is trapped in the Fade until this destroying a pair of ancient gods business is settled.
As with anything, we won’t know for sure until Dragon Age: The Veilguard is released on October 31.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
