Dragon Age: The Veilguard Creative Director Talks Companions, Character Creation Details, and More

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is creeping ever closer to release, and many fans are undoubtedly excited for its October 31 release date. In it, players return to the world of Thedas but find themselves in the countries north of Ferelden and Orlais, including the long-mysterious Tevinter Imperium. They'll be facing off with the Blighted Elven Gods of Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, while assembling seven new companions for their journey: Neve, Harding, Taash, Emmrich, Bellara, Davrin, and Lucanis.

At the recent Dragon Age: The Veilguard preview event, Game Rant spoke with creative director John Epler about the game's companions, a few odds and ends about the preview's gameplay, and a few of my most burning questions. After asking about Dragon Age: The Veilguard's companions, for example, I also asked if there was any chance Dragon Age: Inquisition's Dorian would return and if there was a chance fans could get the character creation ahead of launch. Understandably (if somewhat sadly), Epler couldn't comment on either, but he had a lot to say about the companions and the world around Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: You've worked on every Dragon Age game, in some capacity, to this point. Heading into Veilguard's release, you're creative director now. I was wondering how it feels? Is it the same, different from past releases?

A: It's always exciting to come out with a new game. I was on Inquisition, I was on Dragon Age 2. With Origins, I came in at the end. I wasn't there until it shipped, so it was a little different. It's always exciting though. The biggest thing about The Veilguard is that there's a lot of stuff in this game, decisions we made, new characters we created. This is also the first one I did writing for; I wrote one of the companions.

Honestly, funny enough, I know I'm the creative director, but the thing I'm most stressed about is the writing side of things. Like if people don't like the writing or the characters I created, there's something deeply personal about that.

Q: It was Bellara you wrote, right? Can you tell me a little bit about the writing process there?

A: Absolutely. We knew, at the start, that we needed a character who was an expert in the Ancient Elven magic because, obviously, the story of The Veilguard is these Gods are out. After that point, it was just a matter of what that character concept looked like. What kind of person is this? For me, it was somebody who's a little bit anxious, who has a little difficulty focusing, and who is so obsessed with understanding what their people, the Elves, used to be. It's something we brought up a lot before in Dragon Age, that elves used to be an immortal and amazing civilization, but there's so little left of that they're still finding pieces. She's somebody who is obsessed with discovering who they used to be. Where did we come from, and how did that change when Solas put up the Veil, right?

Q: When I think of Bellara, my mind goes to Dalish from Bull's Chargers. Was that similarity intentional? Test