Dragon Age gets Dorian, a gay guy with a 'stache of magic
BioWare writer David Gaider believes his personally penned Dragon Age character, Dorian, may be "controversial in some corners," but "a fully realized character to fans in the end." Dorian, a gay mage from Tevinter, joins the cast of Dragon Age: Inquisition having rejected the ruling hierarchy of his homeland.
"Dorian is gay-he is, in fact, the first fully gay character I've had the opportunity to write," Gaider says on the official Dragon Age site. "It added an interesting dimension to his back story, considering he comes from a place where 'perfection' is the face that every mage puts on and anything that smacks of deviancy is shameful and meant to be hidden." Though Dorian's sexual orientation is inextricably part of his character, Gaider says he is more complex as both a pariah and a partial idealist. "Without spoiling the plot, I'll say that Dorian got wind of something that his fellow Tevinter mages were doing, and decided to intervene. As he sees it, someone from Tevinter needs to stand up and say, 'We don't agree with what these people are doing. They don't represent all of us.'"
Dorian isn't simply a sign of interesting, diverse new characters and fine mustaches joining popular game genres - it's also a sign of BioWare executing on long-standing claims. At 2013's GaymerX convention in San Francisco, Gaider spoke about the developer's intent to reflect humanity in modern games, and listen to fans who support games in which they can be (or see) more of themselves.
"That's the sort of language that companies listen to," Gaider said at the time. "As developers we are there to make art, but we are also there to survive and make money. In talking about it, they are making their presence heard."
[The Picture of Dorian provided by EA]
