Dragon Age 4 will take fans of the franchise to the Tevinter Imperium, an ancient human empire in the north of Thedas ruled by mages. There, they will face down Solas the Dread Wolf, who plans to tear down the Veil between Thedas and the Fade in the hopes of restoring the Elves to their ancient glory.
Elven player characters will likely have some fantastic roleplaying opportunities in Dragon Age 4. There's even a part of the human-dominated setting that could provide some particularly emotional moments for Elven PCs in the upcoming game.
Elven Lore In Dragon Age 4
Long before humans arrived on the continent, the Elves of Thedas ruled over an expansive empire known as Elvhenan. They began worshipping some of their most powerful mages, known as the Evunaris, as gods.
This Elven pantheon included the Elf who would later be known as Solas, and Mythal, whose spirit would later possess Flemeth. However, the other Elven "gods" began making slaves of their own people, and eventually killed Mythal when she opposed them. This led Solas to start a rebellion against the gods. For his betrayal, the Evunaris gave him a new name - Fen'Harel, the "Dread Wolf."
The Dread Wolf's rebellion was eventually successful, but it came at a huge cost. In order to defeat the Evunaris, the Dread Wolf had to create the Veil, a magical barrier that would trap the Elven pantheon in the Fade. Until this point, the Elves had been deeply connected to the Fade, which they simply called the sky. By cutting them off from their source of power, Solas inadvertently began the downfall of Elvhenan.
Creating the Veil caused the Dread Wolf to fall into a deep sleep where he wandered the Fade. From there, he witnessed the arrival of the humans from the north, the formation of the Tevinter Imperium, and its successful campaign to wipe the Elven empire from the continent.
The Elves found themselves lacking many of the magical abilities they once had, and it has also been suggested that the Dread Wolf's actions caused them to eventually lose their immortality. Solas' plan to tear down the Veil, however, could have disastrous consequences for Thedas. What exactly those consequences may be remain unknown, even to Solas, but releasing the chaotic magic of the Fade could restore the Elven empire at the cost of the other races of Thedas.
Playing An Elf In DA4
All of this makes playing as an Elf in Dragon Age 4 likely to create some great roleplaying opportunities. Players could find themselves caught in some some of the most difficult moral dilemmas in Dragon Age so far, and its likely many of their fellow Elves will join the armies of the Dread Wolf. An Elf who grew up in Tevinter may have faced harsh oppression and could feel sympathy for Solas' cause; they could even have been a slave, considering Tevinter's active slave trade.
Interacting with the Dread Wolf himself could be very interesting from the perspective of an Elven character. After the fall of Elvhenan, the very people Solas had once fought to liberate turned on him. By the time of Dragon Age: Origins, the Dalish consider the Dread Wolf the betrayer of their kind, a reputation Solas acknowledges in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
There are also Dalish tribes in Tevinter's Silent Plains who are said to have been contacted by the Dread Wolf while he was wandering the Fade, and could compose the bulk of his forces now that he has returned to Thedas. Whether players will be able to choose if they are a city Elf or a member of a Dalish tribe remains to be seen, but it's very likely that although the next game will be set in Tevinter there will be a huge focus on Elven lore in the main plot.
Arlathan Forest
Setting the game in Tevinter could even complement the story's focus on the Elves, despite it being a human empire. Arlathan Forest is a huge forest in the east of Tevinter that presumably once housed the capital of the Elven empire, Arlathan. Tevinter razed Arlathan with blood magic centuries before the Dragon Age games take place, but the forest is still said to be haunted. Some Dalish clans are still believed to live in or near the woodlands, but so far little has been revealed about them.
In Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, the Qunari are able to capture the Tevinter city of Ventus, on the Imperium's northeast coast. The Qunari then put the city's male inhabitants to work collecting timber from Arlathan Forest. When an Elf and a human mage escape their Qunari captors, they are pursued into the forest and end up encountering a golem-sized forest guardian made of wood and stone, and with blades infused with Lyrium. Though it is initially hostile, it ends up turning its attention on the pair's Qunari captors.
It is very likely that players will get to visit Arlathan Forest at some point in Dragon Age 4, and returning to an ancient place of Elven power could be key to the Dread Wolf's plot in some way. For Elven players, this will likely be another unique roleplaying opportunity. An Elf who has grown up in a Tevinter city or among most Dalish clans might still consider the forest haunted, and it's clear from Tevinter Nights that it is still dangerous to Elves. While entering Arlathan Forest will likely be an intimidating prospect regardless of the player's race, it could also lead to some particularly moving moments for an Elven player character.
Dragon Age 4's Elven PCs will likely be exposed to the full breadth of their race's history, from its current confinement to Alienages and the Dalish clans to the immense power of its past and the potential for Elvhenan to be restored in the future. BioWare will have to work hard to give the other races of Dragon Age 4 as many unique roleplaying opportunities, but the next game could still be particularly rewarding for players who pick Elf every time or fans who are invested in Elven lore.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.