Dragon Age lead writer shares the heartfelt process of creating Inquisition's Dorian, says his 'story is not MY story, but it's also not far off'
David Gaider, creator of the Dragon Age universe during his time at Bioware (and the lead writer on Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Inquisition) has been on a bit of a tell-all spree lately. Seemingly seized by an unquenchable thirst to show you behind the curtain, Gaider's been revealing truths about the series' cast, such as Morrigan's audition tape, a scrapped cameo for the Grey Warden, and Shale's salvation via an ode to how much he hated bird poo. Dorian brushes a little closer to home for Gaider, though. Character spoilers for his role in Inquisition to follow.
In case you're unfamiliar, while homophobia isn't necessarily a big, institutionalised deal in Thedas, Dorian's father attempted to change his sexuality using blood magic, because he was both gay and also unwilling to supply House Pavus with an heir. While blood magic doesn't exist in the real world, "conversion therapy", a relic of an era where homosexuality was criminalised and pathologized, unfortunately does.
Gaider, who is a gay man himself, led the charge on some of Dragon Age: Origin's bisexual romances, which were a pretty big deal back in 2009. Dorian, however, was his first gay character: "It's no big secret I have a lot of feelings about Dorian, not least of which because he was my first (and only) gay male companion. There's a lot more to him than that, of course" Gaider writes, "(as there should be), and it was quite a trip."
He explains that Dorian's initial concept was born out of a set of short character briefs to help the artists design them better. "We stuck to vibes and the *emotions* we wanted the concepts to evoke," Gaider writes, before explaining that Dorian's elevator pitch was "rock star mage". In a stroke of both tablet pen and genius, Dorian's concept artist turned Freddie Mercury into a mage and gave him a monkey. "Sadly, we had to lose the monkey." We can't have it all.
His sexuality, however, didn't pop up until a later writer's meeting. Gaider writes that he even "didn't think that could work. 'Rich kid gets kicked out of the house for being gay' wasn't a trope I wanted to explore. 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. So I think it's fair to say that the gay fairy was already circling Dorian even before we got to the romance talk."
While Gaider doesn't go into any details (and is certainly not under any obligation to), he does go on to hint that "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."
The scene he's speaking of is when Dorian confronts his father about his attempt to preserve his family's legacy at the cost of his son's agency and trust—it's a heartwrenching bit of writing, made more impressive being allegedly written in one go, with Gaider saying the only feedback he got was a tearful "it's good".
He then goes on to make a pretty salient point about his work: "I don't think a writer needs to be a minority in order to write a minority. Sometimes those characters should simply exist, and we want them to. But if that character's story is about their experience as a minority? That's different.
"Dorian's story didn't need to revolve around his sexuality … but my writing him meant it could be. It allowed me to SAY something. That felt good. It felt right." Gaider goes on to say that he was pleased by the amount of straight men who chose to romance him—a sign of a well-written character, no doubt—but also "the number of fans who privately contacted me who'd been through conversion therapy, some who said Dorian helped them survive? Well. Gosh."