I don’t have the attention span or much less the strength to keep up with Discord conventions (bc apparently fandom is more in Discord these days?? I am not a talkative person to even take part in a group chat *shivers*) or follow with whatever’s going down on Twitter.

Inquirian

“I’ve faced tyrants and would-be gods. Seen friends loose life and limb. But there’s always someone bent on breaking the world. It’s time for a new hero. No magic hand, no ancient prophecy. The kind of person they’ll never see coming. We’ve got your back. I’ve got your back. Demons. Dragons. Darkspawn. Even the Dread Wolf. This, is your story.”

I think the teaser trailer did a really great job at giving us a general vibe the game will be going for. Trailers for the past Dragon Age games usually hit high notes of heroism; sacrifice, duty, might, etc. This trailer immediately feels different, and I’m personally keeping an open mind about that. I hesitate to use the word “dark” to describe media, because I feel that most people have a different definition of what makes something have a “dark tone” than I do, but I would apply that here. The music is cinematic not in the sense of epicness, but of dire straits. Dare I say I got more “end of the world” vibes from this trailer than from all of Inquisition.

The term “teaser trailer” is definitely appropriately used here, because that’s what it is; a tease. BioWare is very good at teasing, at sharing enough bits of information to keep you thinking, without giving it all away. So with that said, these are my own personal thoughts.

If you have not yet seen The Next Dragon Age Official Teaser Trailer released during the 2020 Game Awards, you can view it here: [Link]

The Mural

The trailer opens and closes with another large painting by Solas. A clear image of the entire mural was changed as the background of EA’s official Dragon Age webpage.

It interests me that Solas represented himself as the Dread Wolf with red mouth and blue eyes. In past depictions of Fen’Harel, he has red eyes and a blue moth, such as the DA:I tarot card:

The colours blue and red have traditionally been representative of opposite forces, most often good and evil, in media. If there is meaning to this, (because after all, it could just be a style choice,) I wonder if it is indicative of his role reversal from Inquisition?

On either side of the Dread Wolf are two figures, with familiar shapes as their heads:

These shapes are found fixated on top of metallic dragon statues and eluvians in Trespasser:

In the game files, they are referred to as the following:

prp_elv_TyrantIdolHead01

prp_elv_TyrantIdolHead02

prp_elv_TyrantIdolHead03

These “Tyrant Idol Heads” obviously represent the Evanuris. The second head that looks like the sun is obviously Elgar’nan. The third head I believe represents Mythal, as it holds resemblance to dragon horns, and Flemeth’s silhouette. The question remains which member of the Evanuris does the first represent, the one appearing as the head of the left creature in the mural. Given the monstrous nature, how @felassan​ pointed out the head and body has the same shape as a monster seen in concept art, and that Ghilan’nain’s monsters were recently explored in the Tevinter Nights story, the Horror of Hormak, Ghilan’nain is my guess.

The second figure in the mural? I think that is another Evanuris. This is a shot in the dark, but I wonder if perhaps June, given we know next to nothing about him thus far, and I do think it’s supposed to be a male one, given the stereotypically masculine body shape.

The figures are both hanging upside down with their hands folded over their chest. This is symbolic of martyrdom in Catholicism. (Why Solas has become Catholic, I do not know.)

At the bottom of the mural is, from right to left, the red lyrium statue of meredith with the red lyrium idol sword, a crumbling city full of red lyrium, and Corypheus with the orb. The circling yellow light around the city reads as an explosion to me, which is very interesting, given the plot of The Streets of Minrathous in Tevinter Nights. The remaining Venatori wish to summon a very powerful demon resting under the capital city, blowing it up in the process. Perhaps they are not the only ones with such a goal, or perhaps they will try again?

That’s the N7 armor from ANDROMEDA. Not Shepard’s armor. Plus, we already know Shepard’s helmet’s accounted for (and it didn’t actually have an N7 on it). If you look at the piece Liara picks up, it’s clearly this style of helmet. 

Liara’s obviously older: she has crow’s feet and laugh lines. This is a future game—and by the imagery and the galaxies, it’s going to tie the events of the trilogy and of Andromeda together. If I were writing it, I’d probably work on connections between the Reapers and the mysterious beings mentioned in Andromeda. You know, the ones basically messing around and treating the Andromeda galaxy like Bobby’s Science Fair Project (Creepy Aliens Edition).

Remember, Liara knew about the Andromeda project before it left the Milky Way. And also remember: the Arks had to travel over six hundred years to get to Andromeda, so … to tie the two together, Liara’s going to be crows-feet-and-laugh-lines-older. I’m pretty sure Shepard’s resting in peace by then, no matter what ending you chose unless my horrible headcanon is true and the Lazarus rebuild means they age slower and have to deal with the consequences…

I can make out most of the dialogue. 

Historian-type voice: We know now that in the earliest years of the 20th century this world was being watched–

Roger. Copy.  Eagle, Houston. You’re GO for landing. Over. (From the Apollo 11 landing)

Woman: Arcturus Station. Unknown vessel approaching. We need first contact protocols. (Presumably First Contact.)

Humanity now stands as a partner in the galaxy. (Presumably upon joining the Citadel races.)

Hackett(?): Ark-6 is away. Godspeed. The quarian Ark (Ark-6) departed later than the other arks because of technical issues (it was carrying several species: quarians, drell, hanar, elcor, batarians, volus). It didn’t make it during the course of the game, though Ryder gets a distress call. Evidently, it was supposed to be DLC; they may have repurposed some of those ideas for this new venture. NO WAIT. Courtesy of @fade-touched-eezo​ The quarians were Ark-5. WHO IS ARK-6???? (unless they counted the nexus as an ark? but?) Was Liara on Ark-6? What? What is happening???

Voices: What’s that– Oh my g– –it’s taking down their dreadnought– –someone help me– –the engines are going crazy– Abandon ship! *Reaper noise* (Probably the Reaper War of ME3)

Woman: Is anyone receiving this? We’ve lost contact… (My guess would be the missing Ark)

Then there’s this extremely muddy section. A woman’s voice says something like “anomaly readings all ” and what sounds like a computerized voice saying “[?] the station” and a male voice definitely saying the word “over” or something’s over. And space noises. Pretty sure this is like, six tracks on top of each other to make it extra confusing. 

“Not actual gameplay”

Tevinter and its magic neon lights - there was a magical laser show (basically) in one of the comics in Tevinter

Tevinter Nights really showed off what such a magic-integrated society is like compared to the rest of Thedas (bars with no barmen, floating chandeliers, magic dust, iirc someone just chucking a perfectly magical flask away like it’s nbd because there’s so many of them/they’re common, etc) - it’s nice to see that reflected in this teaser with the magic neon lights, floating buildings, etc. No wonder Dorian and co think the south is so backwards and quaint. Reminded of the floating aqueduct in The Wigmaker Job. Do mage lamplighters like Myrion create and maintain these kinds of lights we’re seeing here? 

Finally the circular “Will it be the Inquisitor or a new PC that’s the PC?” debates can end

The person with the gold triangle bow looks like they’ve been taking hat/headpiece advice from Vivienne (if it’s even a hat or helmet though)

Unsure if Varric is returning in a big meaningful way or is more of like a familiar/iconic face (well, voice) and framing device (he is our narrator thus far after all) for the purposes of the trailer. Compare Morrigan in The Fires Above DAI trailer to her role in DAI. Like maybe they wanted to avoid showing companions in a trailer at this stage? He is a Viscount now. Advisor-y type role, a role like Morrigan’s DAI one, the guy that connects the new PC with the Shadow Inquisition?

loving the art direction

Looks like the same palace-type structure from different angles in different times of day (the structure in the middle with light beaming off it)

The wavy lines are oceanic. Makes sense, in that other concept art that creature appears to be rearing out of the sea. - but also! We see that kind of thing in elfy murals like here and here (left hand side, in the part representing the Well of Sorrows)

Another Solas wardrobe change

the turtley-dinosaurs are a new type of fauna

dig the alliteration of demons, darkspawn, dragons, Dread Wolf. smart

Is the person with the wine glass a Crow?

Continuing the theme of finding someone he doesn’t know and needing someone new, and some Joplin-y feeling subterfuge and stealthyness, and of being a nobody who wouldn’t be expected (“what happens when you don’t have power”)