Dragon Age Keep: Inquisition's Alternative to Save Transfers

BioWare has revealed Dragon Age Keep, an application that lets players recreate the choices made in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, and apply their consequences to Dragon Age: Inquisition.

"It will initially be accessed through the web and there are more platforms planned," executive producer Mark Darrah tells IGN. Through the online application, you'll craft your own version of Dragon Age's past, including which companions your Grey Warden conquered the Blight with, who Hawke romanced, and how you last left Thedas.

"The consequences of your choices in the previous games will affect the state of your world in Inquisition," Darrah says. "It could be something huge, something like what happened with Morrigan and the Dark ritual at the end of [Origins]: Did she have a child? Additionally, the game will also know and react to things like who is in charge of Ferelden."

So does this mean Hawke and your Warden play an important role in Inquisition? Darrah says yes -- but BioWare won't elaborate on that just yet.

"Within the Keep, fans will be able to customize as much or as little about the world of Thedas as they wish," says Darrah. You don't have to commit to your first run through each of Dragon Age's weighty decisions, either. "You can change your choices to see all of the different opportunities in previous games. Once you start a new game, it will use the choices from the previous games from that moment."

So if you want to tweak the outcome of the Landsmeet or whose side you took in an important debate, you can do so ahead of starting Inquisition. It's not necessarily as elegant as moving your saves straight into a next-gen game, but BioWare wants to ensure you join the world as you last left it -- or build one that's better suited to the sort of story you want to have in Inquisition. Living out what-if stories means discovering what might have been if you'd failed to succeed somewhere, and seeing that through in the next-gen RPG.

"For players new to Dragon Age, the Keep will serve as an engaging way to understand the people, places, and events that shaped the world leading up to Dragon Age Inquisition," says Darrah. In tailoring the history of the world, they'll learn about the Mage/Chantry feud that's erupting into war, the Orlesian conflict with Ferelden, and what a qunari is.

You can join the beta for the Keep now, and it'll launch for everyone in 2014.

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Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor at IGN. He’s currently reading Tom Bissell's God Lives in St. Petersburg. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

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