Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 1

This book goes into full detail about the world of Thedas, and the type of cultures and species that inhabit this vastly-constructed universe. While reading it, I mused over how it was very similar to a real-life encyclopedia, just a fictional Dragon Age version. This being volume one, not every single bit of information about the world is in here, but I'm sure we're to expect more to come. This specific issue covers the nations of Thedas, such as what every culture wears, the classes, how to pronounce some of each nation's dialect and language, species, and events that have happened since humans first arrived on the continent. (Elves and Dwarves go back much further, and some information is told about life before humans as well, although that time is "less documented".) Beautiful art is through out the book - we're able to see what cities or nations we've heard much about but never have seen look like. There's also a timeline of events in Thedas all through out the book - very useful when you've read the books, comics, and played all the games, to then fully grasp the structure of when each event occurred. (Before now, I always "knew" the timeline due to fans trying to piece everything together based on general times given to us.) As some people have already mentioned, some of the information given to us doesn't exactly add up to things we've been told in-game. That being said, for any Dragon Age fan, this isn't exactly new for the franchise. ;) As Mike Laidaw said at PAX East, the version that we're told about now can be chalked-up to the canon of the series. For the most part, any "different" information is very minor, and really doesn't detour you from the story telling of this giant fictional universe. Also, there might be griffins mentioned in this book.

Its a great read. Its set up more like a text book. It is broken down in sections, which makes it easy to read up on the sections you are most interested in at the moment without having to thumb through the whole book. The art work I would give an 8 out of 10 with some art being fantastic and others falling short of my expectations. Some of the images are recycled from other source material and concept art, however their is plent of new art. Content wise the book gives more depth and detail to parts of the Thedas not closely examined in the games/novels. The book as a whole exceeded my expections. If you are a Dragon Age fan I suggest this as a must buy.

It's still sitting next to me. I'm enjoying it. A buy. Now let me be less broad. The book is well put together - most of the lore is organized for easier reading. Specifically: the Old Gods, religion, ranks in nobility and even within the Qunari, etc. The timeline running at the bottom definitely gives a better feel of the events happening in Thedas since the beginning (especially for someone who likes the quick review). You can tell they were wary on including details, like Empress Celene and Cassandra Pentaghast. There's enough there to wet your whistle, but not enough to guess what's to come of their fates in DA3. I love/hate the description of the Black City and all vague interpretations of it. If you played DA2, think how much you learned in the Legacy DLC. Yep, that's still it. But for now, the current Volume stands on its own and definitely has filled me in regarding items. There's not a lot about what happened from DA: Asunder, however. I'm curious as to why that is - the Nevarran accord or the White Spire incident. If it's so we read the original book...well, I can understand that. I can't vouch for the other comics. At the same time, however, for a book that came out two years ago I'd figure we would get more information put into World on Thedas. But perhaps I'm nitpicking. Overall, worth it for a person wanting to know more about Dragon Age and before the year of Dragon. I'd probably get this before DA3, however. It will put everything into context.

When I first played Dragon Age: Origins many moons ago, one of the first things I fell in love with was the world and its history. The collector's edition strategy guide contained a brief, but informative lore section, and I ate it up. Codex entries in the game itself were also equally entertaining, especially because there were some instances where people either weren't sure about what was behind certain events, or their words were colored by perspectives and prejudices. The World of Thedas: Volume 1 is one hefty tome of all of this. There are sections about geography, religion, magic, and other key aspects of this vast, violent world, filled to the brim with details and personal accounts. For those who have played Dragon Age II and Inquisition, you will also see many clues about events that will soon come to pass. Personally, my favorite feature is the timeline that runs along the bottom of every page, from the beginnings of the elven calendar through the "present" year of the Dragon Age, punctuated with key moments and events in this long and eventful history. If you can't get enough Dragon Age lore, and you suspect you may know (or want to know) more about the history of Thedas than the real world that we live in, this is definitely the book for you.

A great summary with a lot of supporting details for the various factions, history, geography etc. of Thedas. It is a rich world in which a lot of detail can be overlooked while playing the games. These volumes allow readers to revisit their favorite aspects of the game world without flipping through multiple codex entries in-game. I originally purchased this as a support to the campaign setting for use with the Green Ronin Dragon Age tabletop RPG. It makes a great sourcebook to address any point of lore you may need! The book itself is the same size as sourcebooks for other RPGs. Besides that, it is printed on heavy stock, in full color, so it is also a great keepsake or coffee table book. Highly recommend to anyone that has a love for or wants more information on the world of Thedas from Bioware's Dragon Age games.

Edited 5 Jun 2013 to add that there is a World of thedas errata sheet (written by Brother Genitivi, of course) available now on the BioWare blog. I can't put a clickable URL in the review but it is located at blog DOT bioware DOT com /2013/06/05/world-of-thedas-volume-1-an-errata I bought the Collector's Edition through Bioware as well as the regular hardcover from Amazon and both of those get four and a half out of five stars. Five for art and design, four for content and accuracy. The Kindle version gets one star, for reasons enumerated in the last paragraph. For a book that Mike Laidlaw claims is "ruthlessly fact checked" it has a number of obvious errors, and John Green's review already covered many of them. Examples of a few timeline inconsistencies that John didn't cover: - Dragon Age: The Calling covers the events of King Maric's return to the Deep Roads in the company of some Orlesian Grey Wardens including Duncan. Someone editing the World of Thedas timeline got very confused and decided that the events at the end of The Calling took place in 9:10 and the ones that make up the bulk of the book took place in 9:14. - The timeline claims that Empress Celene was born in 9:6, but the body of the text says she became Empress at age 16 in 9:20. - Early in the timeline the Avvars split off from the Alamarri in -1815 Ancient and the Chasind split off and move into the Wilds in -1415. In 1:50 Divine they combine forces and Hafter holds them off, becoming the first teyrn in the Ferelden valley. In 5:42 Exalted, the timeline says that Calenhad united Ferelden. In the body of the text, on page 26, there's a description of human tribes that claims that Avvar and Chasind only split off because they resisted the unification of Ferelden under Calenhad. On the plus side, the book is absolutely gorgeous and it is really nice to have all of the information in one place and so well-organized. The lore isn't all brand-new stuff we didn't already know, but some of it is a really interesting look at parts of the world we would never get to see in-game: there's an interesting bit about the sexual mores of different cultures, a bunch of sidebars by various Thedosian personalities, lots of notes and letters, and quite a lot of detailed information. The chapter on Thedosian races and the one on the various nations of Thedas are both excellent and do a great job of giving a more vibrant picture of life in Thedas. The Kindle version is essentially a low-res scan of the books I already paid over $100 for. It doesn't work on my Mac, doesn't work on my actual Kindle device, and doesn't work on my iPhone. It only works on the Kindle app on my iPad. The text is not searchable or selectable, and navigating the book uses the comic book interface of the Kindle app much like Dark Horse's own comic reader. Unlike the Dark Horse reader, I can't view parts of the book in significantly better detail by zooming: you get the full-page and the frame nav, and that's it. Given the choice between it and any other available format, choose the other format.

This book is amazing, it filled with beautiful images tons of information about the world of Thedas. It's great for any GM to have to polish up on some history. Lots of background information on the world. You can easily make up a campaign using the information in this book. When I ordered the book it was not going to be shipped for about a week, So I bought a nook and bought the ebook version. Well that ebook was not released until the end of the month & then that book doesn't work on nook. Guess I should of just bought a kindle. I still would of been boned because of the ebooks release date. That's the only part that pissed me off, was the the ebook and book were not released at the same time.

Great for understanding the lore in the Dragon Age series. Really helps to bring the worlds to life. Makes a fangirl like myself so excited. The artwork is beautiful and the way it is formatted as if it were a textbook makes it super fun. I love the feel of paging through a large book liie this!

Como fanatico de Dragon age origins y DA 2, el libro me cayo del cielo y a un buen precio, con excelente artwork de Mike laidlaw que seguramente se extranara en los futuros juegos; una gran cantidad de lore del mundo y sus habitantes, este volumen te dejara con ganas del segundo que seguramente me comprare en los futuros meses. Muy recomendado.

O livro é maravilhoso!!! Cheio de ilustrações lindas e diversos detalhes sobre as regiões, os povos e a historia do setting de dragon age ❤️❤️ ele é bem maior do que eu esperava ❤️

Ce livre était à la base un achat impulsif dont je ne savais pas s'il était vraiment justifié. Au final, je peux vous dire que je n'ai pas du tout regretté de m'être écouté. Ce volume est une succession ininterrompue d'informations toujours inintéressantes pour les fans de Dragon Age comme pour les fans d'Univers Heroic Fantasy bien écrits, cohérents et mystérieux. D'autant plus qu'il est superbement illustré. Je le recommande vivement, n'hésitez pas (j'attends avec impatience le 2ème volume) ! Par contre, étant intégralement en anglais un peu soutenu, il vaut mieux avoir une certaine maîtrise de la langue pour bien en profiter.

It was shipped a lot faster than I expected, and arrived in good condition. It provides much enjoyable background information and art for a Dragon Age fan without any significant spoilers or hints on the actual computer games. In part, a great bundle of flavour text, and in part, a gazetteer of the world of Dragon Age.

"The World of Thedas" is amazing for the superb art in every page and for the incredible wealth of information on the game world of "Dragon Age". If you are a fan of this universe you cannot miss this magnificent book. The book is well written, in a clear, concise way and touches on every major part of lore. We get info on all the races, religions, the blights, the wars and the evolution of the continent of Thedas from the most early age, when Elf's ruled and the humans weren't even around. The book even touches on events from DA2's DLC as its completely up to date, until DA3 comes around. There's no specific focus on any character from the games, although some like Alistair or Hawke are mentioned when discussing specific events. There are some canon mistakes but Bioware has an errata on their website (written by Brother Genitivi himself hahaha) and quite frankly they're nothing really major, considering the work that went into this volume. After all this is a fictional world, with huge history and detail and with the enormous lore the book holds, a few mistakes are forgiven. Unlike The Art of the Mass Effect Universe this book is not about the process of building and imagining this universe and designing the game. This is a compendium, an encyclopedia about the lore in beautifully realized pages. Yes, the art really is fantastic, with some truly gorgeous illustrations page after page. This is a majestic book and a delight for someone, like me, who has spent hundreds of hours on both games. But even for a casual fan, "The World of Thedas" is so beautiful and impressive, its worth every cent. Hey Bioware how about something like this for Mass Effect? Come on, do it!!!!!