Fear Not--Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has 0 Spiders

Giant spiders have been a fantasy trope for a long time. From Shelob in The Lord of the Rings to the arachnids in Dragon Age: Origins and its subsequent follow-up games. But later this month, Dragon Age: The Veilguard will buck this trend by excluding spiders from the entire game.

In a Reddit thread, a BioWare associate community manager confirmed that there are no spiders in The Veilguard. This marks a significant change for the franchise, since the arachnids were so common in Origins and also present in Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

No one seems to have asked the obvious question about whether there's an in-game reason for the absence of spiders. In the real world, Saint Patrick's Day is partially based on the myth that Saint Patrick drove all of the snakes out of Ireland. If someone rid Thedas of all its spiders, shouldn't they get their own holiday? It seems only fair, even if it's just an excuse to get drunk in-game.

Just because the spiders are gone doesn't mean The Veilguard will be lacking in fearsome enemies to fight. One of the recently revealed gameplay trailers depicted an epic battle between the player's character Rook and a blighted dragon. Perhaps whoever got rid of the spiders should have dealt with the dragons first.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard will hit PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on October 31.

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