In Dragon Age: The Veilguard there is a city that overshadows all others. The largest city in the entire game world.
With the upcoming RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare is trying to get a lot right. Much is being talked about the companions and the associated talent system, but the game world is also supposed to be more convincing than ever before in another Dragon Age. This is quite ambitious, but at least one “detail” is supposed to help: The largest city from Thedas is intended to be impressive.
Which city is it about? We’re talking about Minrathous, which is the largest city in Thedas and also the capital of the Tevinter Empire, an ancient magocracy. Here live the great magisters who are subordinate to the Imperial Archon.
That this city has to be gigantic and imposing is due to a single sentence from Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Which sentence is responsible for that? In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dorian joins the group, and when visiting Orlais, a previously quite large city, he says that the city is “picturesque and almost cute compared to Minrathous.”
Game Director Corianne Busch explained that “this one line of dialogue became our guideline when it comes to the implementation of this city.”
The result should therefore be that Minrathous “sprawls. It’s inhabited. Sometimes it’s dirty, sometimes it’s snobbish,” as Art Director Matthew Rhodes explains and adds (via gamesradar):
The everyday life of a normal guy walking the streets [of Minrathous] is more spectacular than what the queen of Orlais gets to see, at least in terms of sheer size.
How is the size of the city supposed to be achieved? To ensure this size is appropriately emphasized, great care has been taken to allow players to look around repeatedly, using “architecture that leads the eyes to remind the player how packed the city is. Wherever you stand, there is bound to be more above or below you.”
At the same time, however, Rhodes has already accepted that one can “never keep up with player expectations” and still tries to “reach for the stars” with Minrathous. So you can expect that the city will be really large. Whether it can compete with other large RPG cities like Baldur’s Gate in Baldur’s Gate 3 remains to be seen. The great mage empire of Tevinter certainly deserves it.
