Dragon Age: The Masked Empire

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire is a fantasy novel released on April 8, 2014 and written by Patrick Weekes. The novel is set in the Empire of Orlais in the content of Thedas, the setting for the role-playing video game franchise Dragon Age. The Masked Empire describes the events that culminate in the Orlesian civil war waged between the ruling Empress Celene I of House Valmont and her cousin, Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons and serves as a tie-in novelization for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Besides Celene and Gaspard, other notable characters introduced in the novel who later appear in Inquisition include Celene's elven handmaiden and secret lover Briala, Celene's champion Michel de Chevin, Mihris the sole survivor of the Dalish Clan Virnehn, and the ancient demon Imshael.

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire
Cover of the original edition of Dragon Age: The Masked Empire
AuthorPatrick Weekes
IllustratorStefano Martino, Andres Ponce, German Ponce, Alvaro Sarraseca (deluxe edition)
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
SeriesDragon Age
GenreFantasy
PublisherTor Books (NA)
Titan Books (UK)
Dark Horse Books (deluxe edition)
Publication date
April 8, 2014 (NA)
April 11, 2014 (UK)
June 18, 2019 (deluxe edition)
Media typeOriginal - Print (Paperback)
Deluxe Edition - Print (Hardcover)
Pages384
344 (deluxe edition)
ISBN978-1-466-83134-6
OCLC1466828102

A preview of the deluxe hardcover version of The Masked Empire published by Dark Horse Books, featuring three pages of prose as well as illustrations by Stefano Martino, Andres Ponce, German Ponce and Alvaro Sarraseca, was released on June 1, 2019.[1] The deluxe edition of the novel was published on June 18, 2019.

Plot

At the University of Orlais Celene meets with Leliana, the Left Hand of the Divine, to ask that Divine Justinia V acts directly to try and ease the tension between mages and templars. Leliana and the empress agree that the Divine will make a declaration at a ball thrown in her honor in no more than a month.

Briala has been Empress Celene's elf servant for many, many years and they worked together in secret, both within Orlesian society's complex game of political intrigue and as lovers; it could never come to light that they were romantically involved, as it would be as scandalous as a lady of an estate sleeping with the gardener. However, since Celene promised Briala she would one day free the elves of Orlais, Briala continued to do Celene's bidding in secret. Briala was mainly her spymaster, using the city elves as her eyes and ears. Along with Celene's chevalier champion, Ser Michel, Briala ensured Celene kept the throne while her cousin Grand Duke Gaspard schemed.

Gaspard eventually launched a coup attempt against Celene while she is in the city of Halamshiral, which forces the Empress and her entourage to do their best to stay hidden from Gaspard and his agents as they attempt to track her down. Celene's goal is to return to Val Royeux and rally forces loyal to her if she has any chance in stopping him. Along the way Celene encounters the mysterious elven apostate Felassan, a clan of Dalish elves who has summoned a powerful demon, the magical mirror artifacts known as the Eluvians, and is even forced to work alongside Gaspard himself to ensure their mutual survival.

Reception

Reviewer Liz Bourke commented that while her experience of reading The Masked Empire felt more like a prologue for a future game as opposed to a complete narrative in and of itself, she found the novel to be enjoyable and praised Patrick Weekes for being a "significantly better prose writer than David Gaider, who authored the previous Dragon Age tie-in novels". She concluded that The Masked Empire is an entertaining novel, "despite possessing in full measure the flaws of its source material".[2] Dominika "Mara" Bieńkowska from the Polish website Nerdheim scored The Masked Empire 9 out of 10.[3]

Keri Honea from Playstation Lifestyle considered The Masked Empire to be essential reading for players, as the novel provides much context for the backstory and lore of Inquisition's events, including how and why Michel freed Imshael in the first place, as well as the “Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts” quest.[4] Various sources have used The Masked Empire as a notable example of BioWare's penchant of publishing novels and written works in other media which introduce forthcoming locations, ancillary characters and quest lines leading up to a new release or a further project in the distant future, to advance the overall narrative of the series beyond the perspective of a specific video game protagonist.[5][6]

References
  1. Rollin Bishop (June 1, 2019). "Dragon Age: The Masked Empire Preview Offers a Look at New Illustrations From the Hardcover Edition". Comicbook.com. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  2. Liz Bourke (April 11, 2014). "Dragon Age: The Masked Empire by Patrick Weekes". Tor.com. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  3. Dominika "Mara" Bieńkowska (April 24, 2016). "Recenzja książki Dragon Age: The Masked Empire" (in Polish). Nerdheim. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  4. Keri Honea (December 6, 2018). "A Little Look at Lore: The Game of Celene, Briala, and Gaspard Before the Inquisition". Playstation Lifestyle. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  5. Vic Hood, Emma Boyle (January 4, 2020). "Dragon Age 4 news, rumors and trailers". TechRadar. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  6. Lauren Morton (July 22, 2019). "Dragon Age 4 setting all but confirmed by upcoming short story collection". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
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