Dragon Age writer David Gaider says Inquisition’s Dorian started life as a Freddie Mercury lookalike with a monkey

Dragon Age creator David Gaider is keeping up with his promise of posting character background info, and this time, it’s all about the “Rock Star Mage” Dorian

BioWare

Dragon Age creator David Gaider is keeping up with his promise of posting character background info, and this time, it’s all about the “Rock Star Mage” Dorian. Rock Star Mage is what Gaider said the writing team put in the brief for BioWare’s artists as part of an effort during Inquisition to make work between the two departments flow more smoothly.

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Gaider said that, before Inquisition, the art team had less context for what the writing team wanted, which often ended up creating unnecessary confusion for everyone involved.

The result of this new effort was a piece of Dorian concept art that depicted him like Freddie Mercury and, for reasons lost to time, gave him a pet monkey. 

“Me: "He looks kind of like... Freddie Mercury?" Gaider said in the Bluesky thread. 
“[BioWare artist Casper Konefal]: "Is that bad?
Me: "NO ARE YOU KIDDING THIS IS AMAZING."

The monkey didn’t last, unfortunately, and Dorian went through quite a few other changes as well, even though he retained the rock star attitude.

Gaider said Dorian wasn’t gay when the team first dreamed him up. Character sexualities and romance interests came later in the writing process, he said, and Gaider wasn’t initially interested in the trope of “rich kid gets kicked out of the house for being gay.”

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“Homophobia isn't really a thing in Thedas, after all, so at first blush I didn't think that could work,” Gaider said. “But, then again, magister families in Tevinter are *obsessed* with the appearance of perfection. Any deviation from the ‘norm’ is considered scandal-worthy. It said weakness. It said you couldn't control your house. Now... THAT had real promise.” 

“The writing pit discussed it a lot,” he continued. “So I think it's fair to say that the gay fairy was already circling Dorian even before we got to the romance talk.”

The responsibility for writing Dorian fell to Gaider, and he used the opportunity to tell a more personal story than he first intended.

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“‘Catty gay man’" isn't digging very deep, no surprise to anyone who knows me,” Gaider said. “There was more to it, however. The conflict between Dorian and his father... Let's be clear: Dorian's story is not MY story, but it's also not far off. I wrote the entire confrontation scene in one go. After I was done, I probably cried harder than I ever have in my life.”

“Dorian's story didn't need to revolve around his sexuality,” he continued. “And, honestly, it only did so as a tangent to his family issue, but they're so bound together it's probably irrelevant to split them - but my writing him meant it could be. It allowed me to SAY something. That felt good. It felt right.”

It also made him one of Inquisition’s most popular characters. Gaider said he received several messages from people whose parents forced them into conversion therapy that said Dorian helped them survive and make it through, and he was particularly pleased that many straight men told him they romanced Dorian with no regrets.

Dorian briefly turns up in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, though he’s busy with Minrathous matters and doesn’t stick around for long.