The Veilguard originally had a very different hub

It's no secret that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had an uneven development to say the least, and the fact that it delivered as a complete, technically sound, and overall solid entry in the beloved franchise is remarkable. Such long and tumultuous development cycles have been the bane of many bad games, but that was not the case here. That said, the game has gone through several iterations and changes since its initial concept – back then Dragon Age: The Veilguard was originally and internally codenamed Joplin. One of the most interesting changes is its companions.

The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguardwhich is available on Amazon, gives fans an intimate look at how the game's conceptual work changed during its time. It is divided into three sections: Post-Inquisition, Joplin, and Veilguard. The first section covers ideas that have been done before Inquisition was sent until it was officially codenamed Joplin, the second episode covers the ideas for the game until the team pivoted Mass Effect: Andromedaand the third was all ideas developed under the code name Morrison. Along the way, Dragon Age: The Veilguard lost its live-service element, several ideas for features such as “Scoundrels”, conceptualized different companions, and for a long time were considered a completely different hub from the Lighthouse.

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveals scrapped companions

Dragon Age: The Veilguard's artbook reveals some potential companions that ultimately never made it off the cutting room floor.

One of the earliest ideas for Dragon Age 4s companion hub was a mobile base: a ship. Not only is there tons of art depicting what the ship would have looked like and areas of the ship, but there were stories surrounding this ship. For example, one concept art depicts players having their ship stolen, with players having to enter enemy territory to retrieve it. This idea continued to develop once it was Project Joplin, where another page talks about how the ship would have been a good backdrop for interpersonal conflicts. Furthermore, there was at least a thought at some point that the ship was a laughable fixer-upper acquired for the players by returning Dragon Age the character Isabela.

From ship to submarine to Veil Whale to lighthouse

At another point, the ship even had a name: The Dumat (after the first Archdemon). However, ships were not good for spy themes Dragon Age: The Veilguard at the time, so the team event went so far as to consider a submarine. This naturally brought challenges for Dragon Age team: how would a submarine fit into a fantasy setting? This involved several iterations of trying to adjust the submarine and hub, with the artbook showing one that looked more like a sea monster (called the Dragon Sub) done in Tevinter, an underwater mansion on the back of an actual sea creature, a castle on the back of a giant Veil Whale (which swam across the Veil), and Xenon's Island. As the story solidified and the team decided that Solas would be trapped in the Fade, it made the most sense to give players access to his base of operations – and the ship idea was gone.

It was a long way to get there Dragon Age: The Veilguardand its excellent art book is accompanied by ideas that probably wouldn't hold water, ideas that might have, and things that made it into the game or were left on the cutting room floor. Right now, BioWare has no official plans for Dragon Age: The Veilguard DLC, but that hasn't stopped many fans from asking. Whether BioWare sticks with this plan or changes its mind remains to be seen, but the silver lining is hopefully that fans won't have to wait a decade for the next game.