Maker bless you, warriors rogues and mages, and welcome to our review of “Dragon Age: Until We Sleep.” Every Dragon Age game includes a dungeon that takes place in the Fade, the world of dreams that is the source of all magic. The fittingly titled “Dragon Age: Until We Sleep” is the Fade episode of the comic series. Just like in every trip to the Fade, this is our chance to see the characters challenged by their own inner demons, as well as learn some juicy lore deep cuts. There will be heavy spoilers for this comic as well as “Dragon Age: Inquisition,” so keep Bianca close and attempt to distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality, here’s my take on “Dragon Age: Until We Sleep.”
Story by David GaiderCover by Anthony Palumbo
Scripted by Alexander Freed
Illustrated by Chad Hardin
Colored by Michael Atiyeh
Lettered by Michael HeislerThe lead writer of BioWare’s hit Dragon Age games concludes King Alistair’s epic quest– in a journey beyond reality itself!
Fans around the world have recognized the Dragon Age comics to be an integral addition to the video-game saga. Now, series writer David Gaider pits King Alistair and his noble companions Varric and Isabela against their most nefarious foe– the twisted blood mage Aurelian Titus!
An essential read while you wait for Dragon Age III!
from Dragon Age lead writer DAVID GAIDER!
We begin this book from Varric’s point of view, as he infiltrates the fortress of the evil magister, Aurelian Titus, in the search for Alistair’s father, King Maric. As a witty storyteller in his everyday life,Varric makes a particularly interesting point of view character. A stroyteller within a story, his soliloquies to the audience come across as a more purposeful fourth wall break, as opposed to a typical genre conceit to remind us readers where we last left our heroes. Varric spins a tale of the backstory of one of the background bad guy goons he murders, assuring us that he is indeed evil and not just an ordinary man who unfortunately fell in with a dragon cult. He later tells us he made the whole thing up. Of course in Varric’s world, we don’t really exist; he’s comforting himself, relieving himself of the guilt he feels about murdering someone. But also of course, we actually do exist, and we get an opportunity to think meta-textually about the enormous volume of unnamed baddies who are murdered by our heroes in the name of justice. But don’t worry, the acknowledgment doesn’t stop the violence.
Throughout this series, and particularly in this book, Chad Hardin achieves an authentic sense of movement. Varric rogue-ishly maneuvers through the fortress with quiet weight and speed, while a magic battle wages back and forth in rhythm with the waves on the shore outside. In the Fade, all the movement feels appropriately more dreamlike. Mae and Isabela both glide through the air with ease as they battle. Then Varric, Isabela, and Mae hop buoyantly down a series of floating islands on their way to search for Alistair.
Though the spaces between dreams in the Fade are all low-gravity, the dreams themselves are counterintuitively more grounded in reality. Dreams can take place anywhere, they can be anything; it says a lot about these characters that each of their fantasies is completely non-fantastical. Varric dreams of waking up with his old beloved Bianca, (the lady for whom his crossbow is named), occupied with the quotidian struggles of working with the merchant’s guild and garnering respect from his older brother, Bartrand. Mae dreams of lounging by a pool with her late husband, and Alistair dreams of horseback riding through the woods with his father. Isabela’s dream is the most interesting; she dreams she has been converted to the Qun. At first it seems like a nightmare, but when Isabela snaps out of it, she admits there’s something soothing about living one’s life under someone else’s command. If she didn’t have to make her own choices, she wouldn’t have to carry around the immense guilt she feels for her past misdeeds, not to mention her past atrocities. With the opportunity to take these dreams anywhere, in this fantasy world within a fantasy world, much more is said about each of the characters with much less.
Continued belowThe greater Dragon Age canon is about equally weighted with deeply compelling and complicated villains, and mustache twirly bad guys. Aurelian Titus seems to fall under the latter category, though he’s modeled after one that (maybe controversially) falls somewhere in between: Corypheus. Like Corypheus, Aurelian Titus is a Tevinter magister who seeks to take over the world. Corypheus gets the benefit of being ancient, borderline-undead to make him insteresting, but we don’t get any insight into Aurelian Titus beyond he’s got glowy eyes and he wants to take over the world, because… he feels like it. He also has a literal twirly mustache.
Like the first book in this series, the ending of this one left me confused. Alistair’s father wanted to be left to live in the Fade, but Alistair convinces him it’s worth trying to get back to real life. Then, back in real life, Alistair sees that Aurelian Titus’ dragon-blood-Fade-machine (the mechanics of this is never fully explained) is the only thing keeping his father alive, so he smashes it with his sword and his father dies. So what was the point of that conversation in the Fade? This is the second time in three books that Alistair finishes by stabbing something he doesn’t understand and murdering the only person who might have been able to explain it. Surely, Morrigan greatly disapproves, and I gotta side with her on this one.
For all his love of storytelling, Varric is a private person. He rarely talks about himself. So it was really exciting to get a glimpse into his past through the Fade. It has left me wanting more. How did he meet Bianca? How long were they together? What happened to her? I want to see the whole thing. We learned so much more about Isabela in her book than about Varric in his, and I’m jealous. Varric disapproves. Just kidding, Varric is really easygoing, he approves. Until next time, Maker bless you.
