From the outset, Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds, is an enigma. She’s kicked out of her secluded life in the Korcari Wilds by her equally enigmatic mother and forced to learn about the rest of the world. Typically, she does so from a high horse, judging people affected by systems that were in place long before she was even born. It’s interesting to hear an outsider weigh in on things that have always been commonplace to most people in the Dragon Age universe, but it also exposes her ignorance about how shackles like the mage prison of the Circle of Magi come to be. Still, in a way, her words often seem prophetic of how the world would change in future games.
Morrigan always knew she was destined for something bigger than her isolation, but watching her uncover what that is throughout Origins as she stumbles confidently through a world she knows very little about is one of Dragon Age’s strongest throughlines. She ends Origins on her own terms, one way or another, and by the time we see her again in Inquisition, she has become the influential force she was always meant to be, but she has also learned to be caring and curious, and is still susceptible to that same unfortunate hubris. Morrigan is one of the most recognizable characters in Dragon Age, not because BioWare touts her out at every given opportunity, but because when she is on screen, her presence always matters.
Dragon Age: Origins set the stage for what would go on to be one of BioWare’s longest-running series, but it remains to be seen how much it will influence The Veilguard. The two seem pretty diametrically opposed, as The Veilguard has shed the tactical RPG dressings of its predecessor in favor of a more action-oriented approach. Will any of its characters make an appearance? We’ll find out when The Veilguard launches this fall.