Dragon Age Books and Games in Order

Novels and comics that fill in Thedas between BioWare's four games

BioWare's fantasy role-playing series is set on Thedas, a continent of feuding nations, a militant Chantry and mages kept under watch. Each main game has a new hero: a Grey Warden fighting the Blight in Origins, Hawke rising through the city of Kirkwall in Dragon Age II, the Inquisitor sealing a tear in the sky in Inquisition, and Rook in The Veilguard. Characters like Varric, Leliana and Morrigan carry over from game to game.

The books share one continuity with the games. David Gaider, lead writer on the early games, wrote the first three novels, and Patrick Weekes and Liane Merciel added two more. Dark Horse's comics follow Alistair, Varric, Isabela and Fenris after their games, while Tevinter Nights and The Missing lead into The Veilguard.

If you haven't started Origins yet, The Stolen Throne is the one book to read first. If you've already played the games, go for Asunder and The Masked Empire, the two books that change Inquisition the most.

Best experience

The games go in release order, each followed by its story DLC, and the books sit where they pay off most. The Stolen Throne is the one book worth reading before Origins, because it gives you Loghain's side. The Calling goes before Awakening, which builds on it. After Dragon Age II come the Alistair comics, the first lore guide and Varric's crime novel, then Asunder, The Masked Empire and Last Flight, which all lead into Inquisition's war. Most of the Dark Horse comics, Tevinter Nights and The Missing are set after Trespasser, so they gather before The Veilguard.

1
Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne2009
NovelRecommendedabout 10 hours
Ferelden is under Orlesian occupation, and its Rebel Queen has just been betrayed and killed. Her son Maric, barely more than a boy, escapes with his life and little else. He falls in with Loghain, a young outlaw with no love for nobles, and then with Rowan, the noblewoman he's promised to marry. Together they try to rebuild the rebel army and take the country back.
What this adds
Loghain is the reason to read this. Origins asks you to judge him on very little, and here you meet the young outlaw before he became Ferelden's war hero, alongside Maric, Cailan's father, and the war against Orlais that every Fereldan in the game still talks about. It's David Gaider's first novel and the prose is plain, but the friendship between Maric and Loghain carries it. Read it before Origins and Loghain's choices in the game look very different.
2
Dragon Age: Origins2009
Gameabout 45 hours
The Fifth Blight is breaking out in the south of Ferelden, and darkspawn are pouring out of the Deep Roads. You pick a race, a class and one of six origin stories, then get recruited into the Grey Wardens by their commander, Duncan. From there you have to rally elves, dwarves, mages and a quarreling nobility against the horde, with a party that includes Alistair, Morrigan and Leliana.
3
Dragon Age: The Calling2009
NovelRecommendedabout 11 hours
Some years after the rebellion, King Maric is ruling Ferelden when a band of Grey Wardens arrives from Orlais. Their commander, Genevieve, needs a guide into the Deep Roads to find her missing brother, and Maric decides to go himself. With him go a young Duncan, an elven mage named Fiona and a handful of other Wardens, all heading into darkspawn territory where few people come back.
What this adds
This is the best book on the Grey Wardens. You see Duncan years before he recruits anyone, learn what the Joining and the Calling really mean, and go deeper into the Deep Roads than Origins ever takes you. One of the darkspawn you meet here matters a lot in Awakening. It's the sequel to The Stolen Throne, so read that first. The long stretch underground is slow, but it builds to the most memorable ending of the early novels.
4
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening2010
Gameabout 15 hours
Some months after Origins, you take command of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden from Vigil's Keep in the arling of Amaranthine. The darkspawn should have gone back underground. Instead they keep raiding, and some of them have started to talk. It's a full new campaign with mostly new companions, including Nathaniel Howe and a returning Oghren, and you can carry your Warden over from Origins.
5
Dragon Age: Origins - Witch Hunt2010
Gameabout 3 hours
A year after the Blight, the Warden hears that Morrigan has been seen near Flemeth's old hut in the Korcari Wilds and goes looking for her. Two new companions come along: Ariane, a Dalish warrior chasing something stolen from her people, and Finn, a Circle mage far more at home in a library than in a fight. It's a short, conversation-heavy epilogue to the first game.
6
Dragon Age II2011
Gameabout 30 hours
Hawke flees the village of Lothering as the Blight overruns it and arrives, family in tow, as a penniless refugee in Kirkwall, a city-state in the Free Marches. The game covers ten years of Hawke's rise there, from mercenary work to the expedition that makes the family's name. It's told in flashback by the dwarf Varric Tethras, who is being questioned by a Chantry Seeker named Cassandra.
7
Dragon Age II: Legacy2011
Gameabout 4 hours
Carta dwarves come after Hawke with a grudge against the Hawke bloodline, and the trail leads to an ancient Grey Warden prison in the Vimmark Mountains. Hawke's late father, Malcolm, turns out to have had a hand in what's sealed inside, and the family's history with the Wardens comes to the surface. It's a self-contained dungeon with a story of its own, separate from the main plot.
8
Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin2011
Gameabout 5 hours
Tallis, an elven agent with secrets of her own, talks Hawke into a heist. The target is a jewel locked away in the château of the Orlesian Duke Prosper, and the way in is an invitation to his wyvern hunt. It mixes Orlesian party politics with stealth sections and puzzles, and Tallis is voiced by Felicia Day.
9
Dragon Age: The Silent Grove2012
ComicOptionalabout 1 hour
King Alistair of Ferelden has heard a rumor that his father, King Maric, didn't die at sea after all. He sets out to learn the truth, bringing along Varric Tethras and the pirate captain Isabela. The trail leads to Antiva and to a witch who lives deep in its swamps.
What this adds
David Gaider wrote this as a follow-up to Maric's story from the first two novels. Seeing Alistair, Varric and Isabela on one adventure is the main pleasure, and their banter sounds like the games. The story assumes the version of Origins where Alistair takes the throne. It's a short comic, the first of three, and it doesn't stand alone: the trilogy only wraps up in Until We Sleep.
10
Dragon Age: Those Who Speak2013
ComicOptionalabout 1 hour
Alistair, Varric and Isabela are back on the road after The Silent Grove, still chasing the hope that King Maric is alive. The trail now leads north toward the Tevinter Imperium and into far more danger than a search for a missing man should involve. It's the middle part of David Gaider's three-part comic story.
What this adds
It continues the hunt for Maric and puts more weight on Alistair's reasons for searching. It's short and ends mid-story, so read it straight after The Silent Grove and have Until We Sleep ready. If the first volume didn't win you over, this one won't either. Like the rest of the trilogy, it's for people who wanted more time with these three characters rather than for new lore.
11
Dragon Age: Until We Sleep2013
ComicOptionalabout 1 hour
The search for King Maric is nearly over for Alistair, Varric and Isabela, and they've made dangerous enemies along the way: the Qunari, and a powerful Tevinter magister with plans of his own. The answer to what really happened to Maric is finally within reach.
What this adds
It wraps up the trilogy and settles the question of Maric, which pays off if you read The Stolen Throne and The Calling. It continues straight from Those Who Speak, so don't start here. All three parts are also collected in Dragon Age Library Edition Volume 1 if you'd rather own them in one book. Of everything in the series, this is the comic with the most to say about Ferelden's royal family.
12
Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 12013
Lore bookOptionalabout 6 hours
An illustrated guide to the setting of the games. It runs through the history of Thedas from ancient Elvhenan and the Tevinter Imperium to the Blights, then covers the nations from Ferelden to Rivain, the peoples, the Chantry, magic and the Fade, with BioWare's concept art on nearly every page.
What this adds
The codex entries you skimmed in Origins and Dragon Age II, organized and filled out. It's the quickest way to get the timeline straight: the old Imperium, Andraste, the Blights, and how Ferelden, Orlais and the Free Marches came to be. It's a reference book, so dip in rather than reading it cover to cover. It describes the world as of Dragon Age II, endings included, so leave it until after that game.
13
Dragon Age: Hard in Hightown2018
NovelOptionalabout 2 hours
Donnen Brennokovic is a worn-out member of Kirkwall's city guard, saddled with a fresh recruit for a partner. On a routine patrol they find a murdered magistrate, and soon the two are caught between Chantry agents and a secretive group called the Executors, all fighting over an ancient artifact. It's presented as Varric Tethras's own pulp crime novel.
What this adds
Varric's crime novel from the games, printed as if he'd written it himself. It's a short illustrated hardcover, more joke than lore, and reads like a cheesy cop story set in the streets you walked as Hawke. You learn nothing new about the games' plots. Mary Kirby, who wrote Varric's lines in Dragon Age II and Inquisition, is the real author, and the voice is spot on. Read it after Dragon Age II for a laugh.
14
Dragon Age: Asunder2011
NovelEssentialabout 11 hours
Rhys, a mage of the White Spire in Val Royeaux, falls under suspicion when templars start turning up dead. The only one who seems to know anything is Cole, a strange young man nobody else notices. Soon Rhys is sent into the Western Approach with the templar Evangeline, the veteran mage Wynne and others to find a missing mage, while the Circles of Magi edge toward open rebellion.
What this adds
If you read one Dragon Age novel, make it this one. It shows how the mage-templar war that Inquisition opens on actually started, and it's where Cole comes from, so his first scenes in the game make far more sense. Wynne from Origins plays a big part, and you see the Divine and the Lord Seeker before Inquisition's opening. David Gaider wrote it between Dragon Age II and Inquisition, and it's his strongest book. Read it after Dragon Age II.
15
Dragon Age: The Masked Empire2014
NovelEssentialabout 11 hours
Empress Celene of Orlais rules a court built on masks and backstabbing while the mage-templar war spreads and the elves in her own cities grow restless. Her cousin, Grand Duke Gaspard, wants her throne. Celene sets out for Halamshiral to put down an elven uprising, taking her champion, Ser Michel, and Briala, her elven handmaid and spymaster, who shares a past with her that the court mustn't know about.
What this adds
Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, the Winter Palace mission in Inquisition, is built on this book. Celene, Gaspard and Briala are the three people you choose between that night, and reading this first turns the mission from a puzzle into a decision about people you know. It also introduces Felassan, an elf whose remarks read very differently after Trespasser. Patrick Weekes writes court intrigue and sword fights well, and it moves faster than the Gaider novels.
16
Dragon Age: Last Flight2014
NovelRecommendedabout 11 hours
With the Circles in revolt, a young elven mage named Valya has joined the Grey Wardens and is studying at their fortress of Weisshaupt. There she finds the hidden diary of Isseya, a Warden who fought in the Fourth Blight centuries earlier, when the order still rode griffons into battle. The novel moves between the two women's stories.
What this adds
Here's why the Grey Wardens stopped flying griffons, which Origins mentions in passing and The Veilguard brings right back into focus. Isseya's half is the Fourth Blight up close, with her brother Garahel, the hero who ended it, and it shows the Wardens at their most desperate. Valya's frame story is thinner. It isn't tied to any game's plot, so it's easy to skip if you're short on time, but it's the best-written of the novels.
17
Dragon Age: Inquisition2014
Gameabout 55 hours
A peace summit between rebel mages and templars ends in an explosion that kills nearly everyone there, the head of the Chantry included, and tears a hole in the sky. You're the only survivor, with no memory of what happened and a mark on your hand that can close the rifts spilling demons into the world. Cassandra and Leliana revive the old Inquisition around you to seal the Breach and find whoever caused it.
18
Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 22015
Lore bookOptionalabout 6 hours
The second volume of the Thedas guide turns from history to people. It profiles the major characters of the games and novels, adds more on places, creatures and factions, and includes in-world texts such as the Chant of Light, a collection of children's stories and a handful of recipes.
What this adds
This one is mostly about the companions and the people around them, from Origins through Inquisition, plus the full Chant of Light that the Chantry characters keep quoting. It assumes you've finished Inquisition and gives away how the games end. It's best for checking up on a favorite character or looking up a verse. Pick it up after Inquisition if the first volume worked for you.
19
Dragon Age: Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon2015
Gameabout 8 hours
Playable once you reach Skyhold
The Inquisitor follows the trail of Ameridan, the last Inquisitor before them, who vanished centuries ago, into the Frostback Basin. That means a misty, overgrown region of lakes and ruins, Avvar hillfolk with gods of their own, and a team of scholars from the University of Orlais who got there first. It's a large new area with a self-contained story.
20
Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Descent2015
Gameabout 5 hours
Earthquakes are shaking the Deep Roads beneath the Inquisition's lyrium supply. The Inquisitor heads down with the dwarven Legion of the Dead and Valta, a shaper who keeps Orzammar's records, to find what's causing them. It's a linear trip deeper underground than any earlier game goes, with a short story of its own.
21
Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser2015
Gameabout 5 hours
After the main story and the other two DLCs
Two years after the main story, the powers of Thedas call an Exalted Council at the Winter Palace in Halamshiral to decide what becomes of the Inquisition. The talks turn into something else when the body of a Qunari warrior is found inside the palace. It's the epilogue to Inquisition, with a last round of conversations with your companions.
22
Dragon Age: Magekiller2016
ComicOptionalabout 2 hours
Marius is a sellsword from Tevinter who hunts blood mages for a living, and Tessa Forsythia, a Nevarran from a noble family, is his partner and handler. Their work takes them across Thedas while the Inquisition fights its war, until a job puts them in the path of the Venatori, the cult behind much of Inquisition's trouble.
What this adds
Greg Rucka's series runs alongside Inquisition, and it's the comic most closely tied to that game. Dorian, Krem, Leliana and the Venatori leader Calpernia all turn up, and you see the Venatori's war from the Tevinter side. Marius and Tessa make a good odd couple. It assumes you've played Inquisition, and it starts the run of comics that carries on through Knight Errant to Dark Fortress.
23
Dragon Age: Knight Errant2018
ComicOptionalabout 2 hours
Vaea is an elven thief who has made herself squire to Ser Aaron Hawthorne, a drunken, washed-up Fereldan knight, because his travels give her cover to steal. In Kirkwall, during the celebrations for Varric Tethras becoming Viscount, she ends up tangled in a dangerous recovery job for the Inquisition.
What this adds
It's set after Trespasser and is mostly new characters, but Kirkwall with Varric in charge is a treat if Dragon Age II was your favorite, and Sebastian Vael shows up too. Vaea and Ser Aaron are a fun pairing, and the tone is lighter than Magekiller. It picks up threads from that series, so read Magekiller first. The story carries on in Deception, Blue Wraith and Dark Fortress.
24
Dragon Age: Deception2019
ComicOptionalabout 1 hour
Olivia Pryde, a failed actress turned con artist, is posing as a magister in the Tevinter city of Ventus. There she meets Calix, another grifter, and the two team up against the wealthy Invidus siblings. When the con falls apart, Olivia's old flame Ser Aaron and his squire Vaea pull them into a hunt for stolen red lyrium, with a Qunari invasion close at hand.
What this adds
The lightest of the Dark Horse comics: a con-artist caper with Dorian in a small but important role. It shows Tevinter from street level, with the Qunari war pressing on its borders, which is a side of the Imperium the games only reached in The Veilguard. It continues from Knight Errant and sets up the team that Blue Wraith brings together. Not essential, but quick and fun.
25
Dragon Age: Blue Wraith2020
ComicOptionalabout 1 hour
The Qunari are moving to topple the Tevinter Imperium. Ser Aaron, Vaea, Tessa, Marius and Calix are sent to recover a red lyrium artifact, and Varric points them to Fenris, the elf from Dragon Age II, known in Tevinter as the Blue Wraith. Fenris joins them, but he has his own reasons for coming along.
What this adds
Fenris is the draw here. It's his first real appearance after Dragon Age II, and it shows where he ended up and what he's been doing in the land that enslaved him. It brings the casts of Magekiller, Knight Errant and Deception together, so it reads best after all three. The story continues directly in Dark Fortress.
26
Dragon Age: Dark Fortress2021
ComicOptionalabout 1 hour
Deep inside the Tevinter Imperium, with Qunari armies close behind, Fenris and a team of Inquisition agents prepare to break into a fortress said to be impregnable. Ser Aaron, Vaea, the mage Francesca Invidus, Tessa and Marius are all along, racing to stop the Venatori from unleashing a power that could reshape Thedas.
What this adds
Here the run that started with Magekiller comes to its finale. It's a heist story with Fenris at the center and the leftover Venatori as the enemy, so it doubles as a coda to Inquisition's villains. Read it straight after Blue Wraith. Deception, Blue Wraith and Dark Fortress are also collected in one hardcover, Dragon Age: Wraiths of Tevinter, if you'd rather buy them together.
27
Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights2020
Short storiesRecommendedabout 12 hours
Fifteen short stories by BioWare's writers, most of them set in and around the Tevinter Imperium in the years after Inquisition. They follow spies, assassins, treasure hunters, cultists and ordinary people caught up in bigger events, with a few familiar faces along the way, while the war with the Qunari grinds on in the north.
What this adds
Of all the books, this comes closest to required reading before The Veilguard. Two of the factions Rook can come from, the Lords of Fortune and the Mourn Watch, first appear here, and several stories set up the trouble the game opens on. Like any anthology it's uneven, but the best stories are among the strongest writing in the franchise, and they're short enough to read one between play sessions. It assumes you've finished Trespasser.
28
Dragon Age: The Missing2023
ComicRecommendedabout 1 hour
Right before you start The Veilguard
Varric Tethras and Lace Harding are given the job of finding Solas, their old companion from the Inquisition, who walked away from his friends years ago. They don't agree on what to do with him if they find him, and new enemies keep turning up in their way.
What this adds
This leads straight into the opening of The Veilguard. It shows how Varric and Harding come to be where you find them at the start of the game, and it gives Harding, who becomes a companion there, more room than Inquisition ever did. It's a short four-issue comic, so it takes an evening. Read it right before you start the game.
29
Dragon Age: The Veilguard2024
Gameabout 45 hours
Rook, a new hero whose background comes from one of six factions, joins Varric Tethras and Lace Harding to stop a ritual in Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Imperium. It goes wrong, and two ancient elven gods break loose. Rook has to gather seven companions, the Veilguard of the title, and stop the gods before they remake Thedas.