The World of Dragon Age II

Discover the magic world of Dragon Age II. Face your enemies in stunning environments. A world full of magic and danger is waiting for you!

Kirkwall

Any ship approaching Kirkwall will first see the cliffs ? the “wall” that the city is named for ? from many miles off. This sheer cliff is made of the same black stone that the city was built on, a pantheon of vile guardians representing the Old Gods carved into its face. Over the years the Chantry has effaced many of these profane sentinels, but it is next to impossible to destroy them all. A channel has been carved into this cliff, allowing ships to sail through a dark corridor with sheer walls hundreds of feet high into the city's interior. Flanking either side of this channel are the “twins of Kirkwall”, two massive bronze statues that are present for more than show: the city sits next to the narrowest point of the Waking Sea, and a massive chain net can be erected between the statues and the lighthouse on the nearest outcropping of rock that marks the edge of the narrow navigable lane. This stranglehold on sea traffic is jealously guarded by the ever-changing rulers of the city for the wealth of tolls, taxes and extortions it has allowed; the transitory politics of Kirkwall are as brutal and treacherous as the sea currents below.

Lowtown

A newcomer to the city of Kirkwall will find Lowtown a vast maze of shantytowns and labyrinthine corridors, all clustered around the busy man-made harbor. Lowtown is literally a pit where the slaves were once quartered, but residents comfort themselves with the thought that as poor off as they are, they are still not the worst in Kirkwall. That honor belongs to those who have descended into "Darktown", the nickname given to the truly desperate who have taken refuge in the city's sewer tunnels.

Gallows

Statues of tortured slaves fill the Gallows courtyard, a ghastly memento of Kirkwall's history. The statues are not monuments to the suffering of slaves. Every inch and angle of the courtyard was designed by magisters bent on breaking the spirit of newcomers. Executions here took place daily, sometimes hourly, and corpses were hung from gibbets throughout the yard. New slaves trudging in from the docks saw what awaited them.

Sundermount

Kirkwall is guarded by mountains to its north, the tallest of which is Sundermount. The mountain has a fearsome reputation. Legend says it was the site of a vicious battle where both sides unleashed horrors into the waking world, and unholy creatures prowl the heights to this very day, unaware that the war for which they were summoned is long since over.

Deep Roads

The Deep Roads are a dwarven built network of tunnels that joined the underground cities together. However, the darkspawn rule the Deep Roads now. Every dwarf who ventures out into the deep roads and makes it back says that it gets worse with each passing year, the foulness spreading a little further.

Hightown

Everyone who is anyone in Kirkwall lives in Hightown, and they give little thought to what goes on in Lowtown other than to complain when the wind drags up the stench from its foundries or ancient mines. People in Hightown feel safe, not because the city's walls are impregnable, but because an invader would need to scale the stairs from Lowtown in order to reach them. Many bloody battles have been fought on those narrow stairs, and in several wars Hightown has held out for months after Lowtown was taken. The wealthy often forget, however, that those stairs are also their only escape.