Vanessa Erat Elves and Empire Challenging Ludonarrative Colonialism and Othering in Dragon Age: Inquisition MASTERARBEIT zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Master of Arts Studium: Masterstudium Anglistik und Amerikanistik Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt Begutachter Ass.-Prof. Mag. Dr. René Reinhold Schallegger Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Klagenfurt, April 2018 Eidesstattliche Erklärung Ich versichere an Eides statt, dass ich - die eingereichte wissenschaftliche Arbeit selbstständig verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Hilfsmittel benutzt habe, - die während des Arbeitsvorganges von dritter Seite erfahrene Unterstützung, einschließlich signifikanter Betreuungshinweise, vollständig offengelegt habe, - die Inhalte, die ich aus Werken Dritter oder eigenen Werken wortwörtlich oder sinngemäß übernommen habe, in geeigneter Form gekennzeichnet und den Ursprung der Information durch möglichst exakte Quellenangaben (z.B. in Fußnoten) ersichtlich gemacht habe, - die eingereichte wissenschaftliche Arbeit bisher weder im Inland noch im Ausland einer Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegt habe und - bei der Weitergabe jedes Exemplars (z.B. in gebundener, gedruckter oder digitaler Form) der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit sicherstelle, dass diese mit der eingereichten digitalen Version übereinstimmt. Mir ist bekannt, dass die digitale Version der eingereichten wissenschaftlichen Arbeit zur Plagiatskontrolle herangezogen wird. Ich bin mir bewusst, dass eine tatsachenwidrige Erklärung rechtliche Folgen haben wird. Vanessa Erat, e.h. Klagenfurt, 5. April 2018 (Unterschrift)* (Ort, Datum) *Bei der elektronischen Version ist es – aus datenschutzrechtlichen Gründen – nicht erforderlich, dass die eidesstattliche Erklärung unterschrieben wird. Sie soll mittels Kürzel „e.h.“, dieses ist dem Namen nachzustellen, elektronisch gezeichnet werden. © Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Studien- und Prüfungsabteilung Version 2018-01-09 Table of Contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 2 Framework: Establishing a Common Ground ............................................................... 5 2.1 A Word on Terminology ............................................................................................ 5 2.2 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 6 2.3 Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 7 2.4 Introducing the Dragon Age Games ......................................................................... 15 Part I – Othering the Elves: Laying the Narrative Groundwork .......................................... 20 3 Colonization: The Ancient Elves and the Historical Elves of the Dales ..................... 22 3.1 Conquest of Elvhenan ............................................................................................... 23 3.2 Building an ‘Imperium’ on the Back of an Empire .................................................. 24 3.3 Relocation versus Homecoming ............................................................................... 25 3.4 Crusades and Displacement ...................................................................................... 27 4 Custodians of the Old Ways: The Dalish Elves ............................................................ 30 4.1 “Deeply rooted in nature”: Reviving the Noble Savage Trope ................................ 31 4.2 “I imagine that’s a metaphor for … something”: Clan Culture ................................ 32 5 Living under the Human Thumb: The City Elves ....................................................... 38 5.1 Alienages: A Life in Segregation ............................................................................. 38 5.2 Rabbits and Knife Ears: Racial Slurs ....................................................................... 40 6 Settling the Frontier: Interpreting Tensions Through a Process of Colonization .... 41 6.1 In vs. Out: The Garrison Mentality of Canada Among Elves and Humans ............. 42 6.2 Old vs. New: The Imagined American West between the Dalish and the City Elves .................................................................................................................................. 44 Part II – Playing the Elves: Engaging with the Colonial Sandbox ...................................... 46 7 Othering and Identity Tourism in the Player Character ............................................ 48 7.1 Elf Aesthetics ............................................................................................................ 50 7.2 Whitewashing the Avatar: Identity Tourism ............................................................ 52 8 The Dialogue Wheel: Continuing Characterization alongside Moral Player Engagement ...................................................................................................................... 54 8.1 Elf-Specific Dialogue Options and the Lack Thereof .............................................. 57 8.2 Perpetuating Stereotypes or Challenging Them ....................................................... 62 9 (Re-)Colonizing Thedas: The Colonialist Nature of Open World Mechanics ........... 66 9.1 Inquisition Presence on the World Map: Our Chief Weapon is…the Land Grab .... 67 9.2 Looting: A Colonialist Reward System? .................................................................. 70 10 An Elf at Court: Narrativization and Mechanization of Othering ............................. 74 10.1 Perceptions and Reactions: Interacting with In-Game Racism ................................ 76 10.2 The Elves of the Inquisition: Court Reactions to Sera and Solas ............................. 79 11 Transmedia Storytelling with The Masked Empire (2014) and ‘Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts’: Activating Recipients…Or Not ......................................................... 82 12 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 88 References ............................................................................................................................... 93 List of Illustrations Figure 1: The train of Dalish aravel traverses the land in a concept art of DA:I (http://blog.bioware.com/2012/10/20/first-look-dragon-age-iii-inquisition-concept-art/, accessed April 17, 2017). .................................................................................................... 34 Figure 2: Makah returning in their war canoes by Paul Kane, undated (http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_198575/Paul-Kane/Makah-returning-in-their- war-canoes, accessed September 26, 2017). ....................................................................... 34 Figure 3: My Dalish Inquisitor in front of one of the various innunguaq in Thedas (BioWare 2014). .................................................................................................................................. 35 Figure 4: Pictographs of elven warriors mounted on halla (BioWare 2014). ......................... 35 Figure 5: The character cards of the character customization process in Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014). From top left to bottom right: humans, elves, dwarves, and Qunari (BioWare 2014). .................................................................................................................. 49 Figure 6: Early concept art of Sera (Gelinas and Thornborrow 2014, 235) and Solas (68) depicting them with different skin colors than their final results, both of which are White (for example the top row illustrations of Solas). ................................................................. 51 Figure 7: The standard appearance of the DA:I dialogue wheel (BioWare 2014). ................ 55 Figure 8: Dialogue options in response to Josephine’s questions after Dalish daily life indicate the inspiration, range and confines of the Dalish worldbuilding (BioWare 2014). ............ 64 Figure 9: Map of the Exalted Plains region, with the turquoise marker indicating the camp of the Dalish. (BioWare 2014). ............................................................................................... 71 1 Introduction Two words: Dalish and Ameridan. They are neither mistake nor misspelling; among the elves in the Fantasy world of Thedas, they are very real: the former as the offspring of a once mighty elven empire, the latter as the Dalish Elf who became the world’s first Inquisitor, and saw his identity promptly erased for it.1 Their home, Thedas, is the world in which the Dragon Age games (2009–2014) are set– –Fantasy roleplaying videogames by Canadian developer BioWare, often hailed as a trailblazer for diversity and inclusivity in the triple-A industry. And yet the design of their elves, the game world’s indigenous population, generally oscillates between ‘noble savages’ living in tune with nature while safekeeping their traditional knowledge, or downtrodden outcasts in the cities of the hegemonic societal group, the humans. Dalish and Ameridan. Where one looks like a typographical error––D and S are located next to each other on any standard QWERTY/Z keyboard, after all––the other may as well have been a wordplay; and so the Salish peoples of the Northwest Pacific, and the French designation ‘Amérindien’ have arrived in Thedas. How the elves are written into the rest