Key Takeaways
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn't carry over the decisions from Origins, so most references to the Warden are impossible.
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But BioWare is still sneaking in references to our first player characters, and it doesn't interfere with our otherworldly state.
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Appropriately enough, this reference can be found at Weisshaupt.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the first sequel in the series that does not carry over all characters or most decisions from the previous game. The only one who makes the cut is the Inquisitor, who recreates from The Veilguard's character creator and enters the three decisions made in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
While this rules out cameos and most references to the heroes of Ferelden and Hawke, the protagonists of Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 respectively, BioWare is still sneaking in for the Warden. Even better, it works regardless of who they are or what happened to them, so it shouldn't feel like it's overwriting canon.
Dragon Age: Valegard has a Dragon Age: Origins Easter Egg Hidden in Weisshaupt
As editor-in-chief Stacey Henley discovered, the holy grail of joining can be found in Weisshaupt. If you interact with it, you learn that it has been “recovered from Ostagar in Ferelden,” and that it is the same Holy Grail that the hero of Ferelden used to become a Gray Warden.
Here's a reminder of how that moment played out in Origins. Well, that's how it went on my recent playthrough, as I've been modding it to hell and back and completely ruined the animations. But generally speaking, characters actually drink water properly.
We'll have to see if there are any more references like this lurking around, but we shouldn't expect much. Because The Veilguard doesn't ask for details about the Warden, BioWare is limited in what it can say about them without potentially contradicting what we did while playing. Additionally, since BioWare has previously stated that they have no interest in creating a standard world state, it seems like the team wants to make sure that our playthroughs can still reasonably imagine that it happened, even if we don't see any references to it in Veilguard.
Dragon Age: Veilguard was released today. Available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in BioWare's fantasy RPG series, previously known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A sequel to Inquisition, the game focuses on Red Lyrium and the aforementioned direwolf, Solas.