The story follows a player character known as the Inquisitor on a journey to settle the civil unrest in the continent of Thedas and close a mysterious tear in the sky called the "Breach", which is unleashing dangerous demons upon the world.

[6] In each hub world, players can complete side activities such as sealing Fade rifts and capturing keeps or forts, and establishing camps, which are used to provide fast travel and resupply points.

[11] At Skyhold, the Inquisition's base of operations, players can access the war table to unlock locations, receive rewards, gain influence and/or progress the story.

As the Inquisitor, players deploy agents and troops of the Inquisition to complete various text-based operations through their primary advisors, which influences the rewards and time requirements of the effort undertaken.

[22] Warriors are sword and heavy weapon wielders who can absorb a lot of damage from hostiles; rogues are equipped with either daggers or bows and arrows; and mages are practitioners of magic that can cast spells on enemies.

The Mage-Templar war is temporarily halted by a Conclave near the village of Haven in the Kingdom of Ferelden, where Divine Justinia V, leader of the Chantry, has orchestrated a peace conference prior to the events of the game.

The 2014 tie-in prequel novel to Inquisition, Dragon Age: The Masked Empire by the game's writing team member Patrick Weekes, details the civil war which broke out in Ferelden's neighbouring country of Orlais between the loyalists of the ruling Empress Celene and a powerful noble faction led by her cousin Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons, as well as the rise of a neutral elven faction led by Celene's handmaiden Briala.

New companions introduced in the game include Solas, an elven apostate mage well-versed in the Fade and its spirit denizens; Blackwall, a lone Free Marcher Grey Warden; Sera, an elven thief and member of a secret society called the Friends of Red Jenny; The Iron Bull, a Qunari warrior leading a mercenary company called the Bull's Chargers, and agent of the Ben-Hassrath; Vivienne, the official enchanter to the Imperial Court of Orlais; Dorian Pavus, a mage from the Tevinter Imperium; and Cole, a mysterious being who is first introduced in Asunder.

The only survivor of the blast is the player character, who emerges with a mark on their hand capable of closing rifts in the Veil that have sprung up in the Breach's wake, but who retains no memory of what happened.

Witnesses claim the player character was ushered out of the Fade by a mysterious female figure, rumored to be the prophet Andraste, the historical Bride of the Maker.

With the Chantry effectively leaderless, Leliana and Cassandra Pentaghast invoke one of the Divine's last orders to re-establish the Inquisition, an organization originally formed to defend against the dangers of magic and heretics.

During a battle against the Wardens, the Inquisitor enters the Fade and regains their memories, discovering that they obtained the Anchor at the Conclave after stumbling onto a ritual being carried out on Divine Justinia V by Corypheus, and then coming into contact with the orb.

A post-credits scene shows a meeting between Flemeth and Solas, who is in fact the Dread Wolf Fen'Harel, a previously inactive deity figure and the original owner of the orb.

BioWare's biggest single-player video game at the time of its release, development for the project revolved around five core "design pillars": "story", "characters", "open world", "choices", and "personalise".

However, they were content to develop a new installment in the Dragon Age franchise as they believed it had more "pull" and consumer "awareness" than Jade Empire, and recognized that creating a new IP would be too large an undertaking.

[49] David Gaider returned as the game's lead writer, while Mike Laidlaw and Mark Darrah served as its creative director and executive producer, respectively.

Transitioning into Frostbite was a huge project for BioWare, and it had to cancel Exalted March, the last downloadable content pack originally planned for II in order to better manage its resources and manpower.

[55] In the book Blood, Sweat & Pixels by journalist Jason Schreier, Laidlaw and Darrah admitted that the gameplay in the PAX Prime demo was not real, and its sole purpose was to show transparency in light of Dragon Age II's divisive reception.

[57] The project's game artists and animators drew inspiration from traditional art media, film, photography and architecture; at the same time, thematic consistency had to be maintained when dealing with multiple character factions due to the need to stay true to the intellectual property.

[67] The end result was that the narrative designers discovered that the content they wrote had scaled poorly, whereas the technical team found that their work had a disconnected impact.

[67] The development team recognised that Hawke's story lacked "clarity" and was "convoluted" and identified it as the main reason why Dragon Age II did not resonate with some players.

[50] The decision to have Trevor Morris compose the game's original soundtracks was an intentional change, as Voillot and Kent wanted to introduce to the franchise a new emotional flavour.

[50] Raney Shockne composed a series of songs which are performed by a non-player character named Maryden Halewell, voiced by singer Elizaveta Khripounova, at a tavern in the player's base of operations.

[75] Elizaveta described the recording process for a video game as somewhat secretive, and controlled without any scope for collaboration or input from the performer as clients usually know exactly what they want and specifically request for it.

[83] EA released Dragon Age Keep, a "companion web experience", which allows players to customize the state of the world before beginning a playthrough of Inquisition.

[92] The Black Emporium, released on May 5, 2015, and available free of charge, adds a new vendor that sells exclusive items, and the "Mirror of Transformation", which allow players to change the appearance of their Inquisitor as many times as they want.

McGee described the characters as "eclectic" and "interesting", but wrote newcomers to the series may feel easily overwhelmed by the game's extensive lore, which was told mainly through codex entries scattered in the world.

[110] Cobbett praised the inclusion of large open areas and believed it reflected BioWare's ambition and scale for the game, though he expressed disappointment with the mission design, compared to quests from MMOs.

[117] According to Electronic Arts' fiscal 2015 third quarter earnings report, Dragon Age: Inquisition is the most successful launch in BioWare history based on units sold.

[118] In September 2024, according to executive producer Mark Darrah, the game sold over 12 million units over its lifetime, surpassing EA's internal sale projections by a significant margin and becoming BioWare's best selling title.