As reported by , Dragon Age: Inquisition initially featured the return of the protagonist from 2009's Origins, complete with full visual customization, similar to Dragon Age 2's Hawke appearing in Inquisition, or when the Inquisitor then returned in this year's . Spoilers for Inquisition ahead.
Former Dragon Age scribe David Gaider recently referenced the plan in a about the difficulty of making player choices matter across multiple games: "'Here Lies the Abyss' in DAI was about as good as it gets," Gaider wrote. "And even that was a far cry from how I originally pictured it (hello last-minute insert of Stroud when a DAO Warden import got cut)."
The Inquisition story quest Gaider references sees the return of Hawke alongside one of three Grey Wardens depending on player choices set in the save's world state: Companions Alistair or Loghain from Origins, or minor [[link]] character Stroud from Dragon Age 2. Back in 2020, Gaider explained why Stroud ultimately took the place of Origins' Warden with fellow Summerfall Games developer Liam Esler.
"We can't make [[link]] the Hero of Ferelden look like the same character from DAO," Gaider said. "We'd have to give them a voice, and everyone's gonna get really upset. Very late in the day we had to cut them, and boy did that require some fancy dancing on [BioWare writer Trick Weekes'] part to write that differently."
I gotta say, I would have freaked out (in a good way) if BioWare had managed to pull this off, even if the Warden didn't sound the way I'd imagined in my head—getting some big name VOs like Mass Effect's Mark Meer (a player voice option in Origins already!) and Jennifer Hale certainly would have softened the blow. But I'm very sympathetic to the logistical and pacing [[link]] concerns, especially for players new to the series being asked to create the protagonist of a game they'd never played for the second time in Inquisition. But this could have made what was already a highlight quest into an all-time whammy.
At the end of Here Lies the Abyss in the shipped game, you have to choose whether Hawke or the Warden in your world state dies. Loghain and Stroud are whatever, but having to pick between fan favorite companion Alistair and previous protagonist Hawke is just brutal. But it could have been so much worse: imagine if you had to decide between Hawke and another player character you had built and invested dozens of hours into—It's so sadistic, it could have been an Aerith dying in disc 2-level trauma for the gaming world (again, in a good way).