No, Dragon Age Veilguard’s secret ending doesn’t retcon the entire Dragon Age series

Dragon Age The Veilguard’s secret ending and post-credits scene are causing a ruckus among some RPG fans, but BioWare creative lead John Epler says it really shouldn’t

BioWare

It looks like Dragon Age The Veilguard’s secret ending and post-credits scene are causing a ruckus among some RPG fans, but BioWare creative lead John Epler says it really shouldn’t. This story includes spoilers for major moments for all four Dragon Age games, albeit without context, so if you’re keen on avoiding those, consider reading our Veilguard review instead.

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Right, so the spoilery bit. Veilguard’s secret ending shows major moments from the previous three games, including Loghain’s betrayal in Origins, the theft of the lyrium idol in Dragon Age 2, and Corypheus tearing the Breach in Dragon Age Inquisition. There’s a twist, though. In each flashback shot, a hooded person – a member of the mysterious Executors previous Dragon Age games hinted at – accompanies the villain in question.

Some Dragon Age fans took this little revelation and the words that accompanied it to mean that BioWare said the Executors controlled every villain in previous Dragon Age games. It’s a pretty big stretch, since every villain had specific motivations to do what they did. Even with someone else’s influence, they had personal reasons for committing these acts. Still, the backlash was enough to prompt Epler to clarify on Bluesky.

“The word choice of balanced, whispered, guided is VERY DELIBERATE,” Epler said in his post, encrypting his post with Rot13 to avoid spoilers. “No one was forced or coerced or controlled into making any choices. It’s extremely important that ultimately everyone made their own choices. They still own the consequences of these decisions, because Dragon Age is still a series about people making decisions of their own free will and those decisions having consequences.”

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“Our own history is filled with calamities avoided (or not) because of the smallest of chances,” Epler continued. “If a single person had called in sick we could’ve had nuclear war in 1983. It does not absolve any of the people involved of the decisions they made.”

So the Executors, whoever they are, nudged and suggested in previous Dragon Age games, presumably without the villains in question realizing quite what was happening, but they, the baddies, would’ve done what they did regardless. It sounds like Epler is saying the Executors were essentially just bad influences or perhaps helped arrange events so Loghain, Corypheus, and Bartrand had an easier time committing to their course of action.

Whatever the case, don’t expect any answers soon. BioWare’s Michael Gamble said Mass Effect 5 is the studio’s next big focus, and even that’s probably a while off yet.