BioWare Reveals Dragon Age: Origin Races, Stories

As Dragon Age: Origins won't hit PC and consoles until October, at the earliest, developer BioWare is doing its best to make sure gamers don't forget about the Baldur's Gate spiritual sequel. Thus, it has revealed the RPG's six races and "origin stories."

"Each Origin Story starts the player off with a unique series of locations, characters and events that establish their motivations," explained BioWare. "The choices you made during an Origin Story will influence the way the game unfolds."

Dalish Elf
• As one of the last "true elves", you were content to spend your life wandering with your clan...until a chance encounter with a relic of your people's past threatens to tear you away from everything you've known.

City Elf
• You have always lived under the heavy thumb of your human overlords, but when a local lord claiming his "privilege" with the bride shatters your wedding day, the simmering racial tensions explode in a rain of vengeance.

Dwarf Commoner
• Born casteless in a land where rank is everything, bound as the lackey and thug of a local crime lord, you have spent your life invisible...until chance thrusts you into the spotlight, where you can finally prove whether you will be defined by your actions or your birth.

Dwarf Noble
• The favored child of the dwarven king, you proudly take up your first military command...only to learn that the deadly intrigues of dwarven politics pose an even greater danger than that faced on the battlefield.

Mage
• Gifted with a power considered a dangerous curse by most, you have spent most of your life secluded in the remote tower of the Circle of Magi to be trained and watched closely by the dreaded templars. Now your final test is upon you -- succeed and prove your strength, fail and you will perish.

Human Noble
• Born to wealth and power second only to royalty, you find your training in both diplomacy and war put to the test when your father's castle is betrayed from within on the very night your elder brother is to lead the family's forces to war.