Storm Age: Armada - Prologue

Existence is a choice. There is no chaos in the world, only complexity. Knowledge of the complex is wisdom. From wisdom of the world comes wisdom of the self. Mastery of the self is mastery of the world. Loss of the self is the source of suffering. Suffering is a choice, and we can refuse it. It is in our own power to create the world, or destroy it.

-The Qun, Canto 1

Thedas has always been divided. Races, cultures, kingdoms and noble bloodlines vie for power and prominence, leaving war and strife in their wake. But every so often, a threat so great arises that it unites the people of this world. In the past, the rampaging hordes of monsters known as darkspawn emerged from the depths to plague the surface in terrifying Blights, forcing former foes to stand together or die. Ever since the elven hero Garahel drove them back during the Fourth Blight however, the darkspawn have remained within the subterranean Deep Roads, fading from the memories of those above.

Then, the horned giants came. A mysterious race with white hair and skin the colour of metal, the Qunari arrived on Thedas from across the Northern Ocean and began a relentless conquest. The Tevinter Imperium was the first to fall, with just their capital of Minrathous holding out. After only a few decades, almost the whole north of the continent was held by the Qunari. It took more than fifty years for the people of Thedas to rally together and begin pushing back against the invaders.

It has been over a century since the Qunari first landed on the island of Par Vollen. Three Exalted Marches have been called, with the last still underway. The greatest powers of Thedas fight side by side- Andrastian and Imperial, Templar and mage. But old differences still threaten to tear apart the fragile alliance, and the Qunari are all too willing to exploit this...