The clearest reliable timeline of Dragon Age starts with Origins in Year 30 of the Dragon Age, follows stories that overlap around and after the Fifth Blight, and continues through Inquisition to The Veilguard. That is a timeline of the main game-era spine—not a definitive dated placement for every novel, comic, expansion, and other licensed story. The series’ dates come from multiple sources, some are approximate or disputed, and player choices can create different versions of events.
How to read the Dragon Age timeline
Dragon Age takes place in Thedas, a setting whose history has been built across games, codex entries, reference books, and licensed stories. BioWare describes the games as standalone stories with new lead heroes, even as events and characters connect them. That makes the series easier to enter than a single continuous saga, but it also means there is no one simple chronology that accounts for every story and every player’s choices.
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Dates in the setting use a year followed by an Age—for example, Year 30 of the Dragon Age. Treat an exact year as firm only when a source establishes it. A story may have a broad placement without a confirmed year, and two games may overlap rather than forming neat, non-overlapping blocks.
The main game timeline
| Story | In-world placement | What the available sources establish |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon Age: Origins | Begins in Year 30 of the Dragon Age | The BioWare/Piggyback strategy guide places the opening during the Fifth Blight. |
| Dragon Age: Awakening | After and connected to Origins | The strategy guide says Origins and Awakening together cover roughly two to three years. |
| Dragon Age II | Its story spans a decade around and after the Fifth Blight | The strategy guide describes Hawke’s story as covering ten years; it does not make the game a simple, immediate handoff from Origins. |
| Dragon Age: Inquisition | A later chapter in the connected game setting | EA lists it among the main series games, but the sources used here do not establish a precise in-world year for it. |
| Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Latest released main-series game in the official list reviewed | A fan-maintained timeline places its era in 9:52 Dragon, but that year was not verified by an official source in the materials available here. |
The strategy guide’s broader description is important: the games are broadly contemporaneous during and after the Fifth Blight. The table therefore gives a useful spine, not a claim that each title begins exactly where the previous one ends.
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What happens around the Fifth Blight?
Origins opens as Ferelden faces the Fifth Blight, a crisis involving the darkspawn. Its Year 30 placement is the firmest early anchor in the chronology described here. Awakening continues the story, with both titles together covering roughly two to three years according to the 2011 BioWare/Piggyback strategy guide.
Dragon Age II shifts focus to Hawke and spans ten years. Its long timeframe helps explain why it intersects the broader aftermath of the Blight rather than functioning as a brief next chapter in a single hero’s journey. The guide supports this broad relationship, but not a clean boundary that would make every event in one game occur wholly before the next.
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Where do Inquisition and The Veilguard fit?
Inquisition and The Veilguard continue the main game series in the same evolving setting. EA’s franchise listing includes both alongside Origins and Dragon Age 2, while BioWare’s description of the franchise emphasizes connected worldbuilding and distinct lead heroes. The sources used here do not provide a precise, primary-source year for Inquisition.
EA announced that The Veilguard was released worldwide on October 31, 2024. That is its real-world release date, not an in-world date. The proposed in-world placement of 9:52 Dragon comes from a fan-maintained timeline, and should be treated as a secondary-source claim rather than an uncontested official date.
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Why there is no single universal version of every event
Player decisions affect the state of the world that later stories can inherit. The official strategy guide notes that BioWare did not treat one Origins ending as the sole proper version of events. Later material can follow a particular continuity or accommodate branches, while an individual player’s worldstate may differ.
For that reason, it is more accurate to describe broad events and their known placement than to present every downstream consequence as a single fixed sequence. A timeline can be useful without implying that every player experienced the same history.
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How complete is the published lore timeline?
BioWare’s 2013 account of The World of Thedas Volume 1 describes it as a lore reference drawing on the games, novels, and external products, with “An extended timeline of recorded history spans all chapters, charting hundreds of the most important moments in the tumultuous history of Thedas.” The book offers a substantial historical framework, but it predates The Veilguard and cannot serve as a complete reference for later developments.
BioWare also published an erratum correcting chronology and lore details in the volume. That is a reason to preserve qualifications when dates conflict or remain uncertain, rather than treating any one printed timeline as infallible. The accessible primary sources establish the broad game-era sequence above; they do not establish a source-verified, exhaustive dated order for every licensed story through The Veilguard.
Choosing a chronological route through the series
If you want to follow the main story without treating uncertain dates as fact, use the release-listed main games as a practical route and keep the in-world timeline in mind as context:
- Begin with Dragon Age: Origins, set during the Fifth Blight in Year 30 of the Dragon Age.
- Continue with Awakening, which extends the Origins period.
- Play Dragon Age II as a decade-spanning story connected to the events and aftermath of the Blight, not as an immediate sequel in which all events happen after Origins.
- Continue to Inquisition and then The Veilguard for the later main-series chapters, while recognizing that the sources here do not assign every title a firm in-world year.
For books, comics, short stories, and other licensed material, check the chronology of the individual work rather than slotting it into a precise year by assumption. The 2013 World of Thedas Volume 1 is a relevant reference for lore and recorded history, but it predates the latest main-series game.
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