Dragon Age is, as its name suggests, set during the “Dragon Age” of the series’ fictional calendar. The different ages of Thedas are determined by the continent's main religious organization, the Chantry, with the Divine declaring the start of the Dragon Age after a High Dragon was spotted for the first time in centuries.
The Dragon Age, however, is the ninth named era in Thedas’ history. Before the Dragon Age was the Blessed Age, a century prophesized to be prosperous, but filled with bloodshed, intrigue, and in-fighting. The lore of the Blessed Age sets the stage for many of the events in the Dragon Age series, and could lay the foundations for some of Dragon Age 4's most important events.
A New Era
Dragon Age 4's "age" system uses the series' unique way of delineating years. The year that the Second Blight began is written as 1:5 Divine, for example, because it was five years into the first age, known as the Divine Age. Similarly, the main events of Dragon Age: Origins take place in 9:31 Dragon, written that way because they take place thirty-one years after the start of the ninth age, known as the Dragon Age. The Divine Age and by extension the entire Chantry calendar began with the creation of the Chantry itself, and ages last approximately one-hundred years.
At the end of the seventh age, the Storm Age, the leaders of the Chantry were anxious about the future. Emperor Etienne of Orlais had no heirs, leading to fears that a civil war was on the horizon. However, in 7:99 Storm, the Emperor’s wife gave birth to male twins, dissipating the Chantry’s worries and leading to the declaration that the next hundred years would be known as the Blessed Age for the prosperity they would bring. The start of the era, however, was not immediately prosperous for Orlais. In 8:5 Blessed, Kirkwall, a city in the Free Marches and the setting of Dragon Age 2, rebelled against Orlais and became an independent city state. On the more optimistic side, Rivaini diplomats were invited to the Qunari island of Par Vollen for the first time in 8:10 Blessed, giving the people of Thedas insight into the Qunari culture for the first time.
Despite fears that he would die heirless in 7:99 Storm, the Emperor of Orlais would live on until 8:21 Blessed, to be succeeded by his son Reville. Three years later, Reville led the Orlesian invasion of Ferelden, and his swift initial success had many in Orlais believing that the Divine’s prophetic prosperity was on the way, at least for the conquerors. The Divine's prediction, however, was far from the truth.
The Mad Emperor
The invasion of Ferelden proved extremely taxing for Orlais. It wasn’t until 8:44 Blessed that the Ferelden capital city of Denerim finally fell to Orlesian forces, and Ferelden King Brandel and other Ferelden nobles would continue to stage a guerilla war despite the city's sacking. Later that year King Brandel died, and Orlais instated an “Orlesian King of Ferelden,” a puppet ruler named Meghren. Brandel’s daughter Moira, “The Rebel Queen”, continued to inspire the Ferelden resistance.
By invading Ferelden, Emperor Reville had left his own country vulnerable to Nevarra, ruled by House Pentaghast, which Inquisition companion Cassandra Pentaghast would be born into some time later. Reville's twin brother Gratien had warned the Emperor about the risk of a Nevarran attack because the Pentaghasts had been holding a grudge against Orlais since the twins' father sent his Pentaghast wife to a convent so that he could marry his mistress, who would become their mother. Nevarra declared war on Orlais in 8:46 Blessed.
As the nobles of Orlais began to turn against Reville, he became increasingly paranoid, gaining the name “the Mad Emperor.” Fearing that Gratien would be placed on the throne in his place, Reville had his twin brother and his family assassinated during the Feast of Ascension in 8:47 Blessed. Fearing retribution, Reville spent the last year of his life locked in his room, dying in 8:51 Blessed. Reville’s son became Emperor Etienne the Second.
The Return of the Dragons
In 8:55, Qunari attacks on mainland Tevinter were repelled several times, though the war raged on and the Tevinter Imperium received no help from its neighbors. That same year Etienne the Second died, and was succeeded by his brother, Judicael the First. In 8:62, a warehouse fire destroyed the Nevarran city of Treviso, but in 8:70, the nation successfully took Perendale from Orlais. Later that year, Judicael the First died and was succeeded by Judicael the Second.
In 8:77, Judicael the Second’s twin sons died during the epidemic known as the Hundred Days Cough, which began in Orlais. In 8:78, the Rebel Queen gave birth to future Ferelden King Maric Theirin, father of Origins companion Alistair. In 8:82 a Nevarran attempt to conquer the Free Marches was repelled. When Judicael the Second died heirless during a fox hunt in 8:84 Blessed, his brother Florian reluctantly became Emperor of Orlais, a title he would hold well into the Dragon Age.
An Antivan Witch of the Wilds, likely Flemeth’s daughter Yavana, prophesized the return of the dragons in 8:95. One year later, the Rebel Queen was assassinated by treacherous Ferelden nobles working for Orlesian King Meghren. Prince Maric began leading the Ferelden resistance. In 8:98, he led them to his first major victory, but in 8:99, they suffered a major defeat and Maric was thought to be dead. However, he survived and after another victory was able to avenge his mother by killing the nobles who betrayed her.
It was in 8:99 Blessed that dragons were spotted once again, first in Antiva, and later in the Orlesian and Nevarran countrysides and the Frostback Mountains. The Chantry’s Divine Faustine, who had been planning on naming the next hundred years the Sun Age after the Orlesian symbol, renamed the coming era the Dragon Age, and predicted a century of turmoil. It would not be until 9:2 Dragon that Maric would finally succeed in liberating Ferelden from Orlais with the help of Loghain Mac Tir.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.