Dragon Age’s strangest mystery concerns a crossbow named Bianca
The opening hours of Dragon Age: The Veil Guard Entice old players and hook new ones with the clever use of one character: Varric Tethras, writer of heroes. As a companion in the previous two games, he’s a familiar face, and as the man who wrote the (fictional) book, he can tell you firsthand all about the events in Dragon Age 2 And Dragon Age: Inquisition.
But there’s one thing Varric will never talk about: why he names his crossbow Bianca. Dragon Age fans did eventually get an explanation, but honestly, it just raised more questions.
(Ed. remark: This piece contains some spoilers for the opening of Dragon Age: The Veil Guard.)
Bianca, Varric’s repeating crossbow, is not common Veil Guard‘s opening hours. During the Summer Game Fest in June, BioWare’s gameplay preview revealed that Bianca takes a massive hit from Solas’ magic and shatters into pieces. Maybe Varric can put it back together, maybe not. You’ll have to play the game to find out. But if this is the end of Bianca, it’s an epic death for the only inanimate object in Dragon Age canon worthy of character status.
Varric and Bianca are introduced together Dragon Age 2 when a pickpocket lifts your player character’s wallet and Varric fires a single bolt so accurate that it pins the fleeing thief to a wall by his clothing. Varric talks to Bianca as if it were alive and hot to him (it’s worth clarifying that it isn’t alive, as this is a fantasy setting) – half of his battle barking consists of things like “Bianca, baby, introduce yourself for!” or “Bianca, you idiot! That was beautiful!” – and while he absolutely loves showboating, it’s not wrong to appreciate it as a weapon.
In the main story of Dragon Age 2you will learn that Bianca is unique: there is no other crossbow in the world that fires automatically, let alone so quickly and powerfully. It’s the perfect weapon for a lazy merchant prince and part-time novelist. What you never find out, however, is where Bianca comes from and whether it is named after a person named Bianca. As Varric describes it in Dragon Age: Inquisitionit’s the one story he’ll never tell.
Dragon Age 2‘S Legacy DLC has the game’s first “explanation” for Bianca’s origin: it was created by Gerav, a dwarven engineer and old mafia contact of Varric – which Varric explains after he is forced to kill Gerav, who was driven mad by a darkspawn -infection. However, you’ll note that this doesn’t explain why he calls Bianca “Bianca,” and fans would eventually figure out that this was a lie of omission, easily made because Gerav could no longer speak for himself.
Bianca’s namesake would be revealed for the first time in the tie-in comic Dragon Age: Until we sleepand finally Dragon Age: Inquisition. The real Bianca – I mean, the human Bianca – no, wait… The alive Bianca was a dwarven blacksmith and Varric’s long-distance secret, true love; they could never be together because of dwarven mafia politics and her arranged marriage. Gerav created Varric’s crossbow, but he was never able to get it to work. It wasn’t until Varric brought it to his clever lover that Bianca (the dwarf) was able to turn Bianca (the crossbow) into the fearsome weapon he wields in the games.
After doing so, however, Varric and Bianca realized that they had to keep the crossbow’s origins a secret or else they would be hunted down and forced to mass-produce it for the scariest bidder. And from the end of Dragon Age: InquisitionBianca (the dwarf) is still alive, and her secret is still safe. Only Varric’s closest friends and a few members of the Inquisitor’s inner circle know the truth.
This part of the story makes sense: Bianca the crossbow is essentially a fantasy machine gun. ‘A crossbow that shoots so far and so fast with so little training? Every fight would be a bloodbath,” Varric tells Solas Inquisition.
But the rest of the story, if I may say so as Polygon’s core Varric Tethras fan, falls apart like tissue paper. If Varric and Bianca had made a pact to prevent this crossbow from being mass produced, why didn’t they just destroy it? Why does Varric walk around Kirkwall pinning robbers to the wall in broad daylight? If they want to keep the secret that Bianca made this crossbow, why did Varric name it after her? Why is he continual Call the crossbow Bianca loudly in the middle of every battle?
Video games are huge projects, built from the work of hundreds of creatives, and that’s without even taking into account sequels, DLC, and tie-in comics. You can’t expect a world-building work like Dragon Age, which is over 15 years old and created by many hands, not to some plot holes. And as a die-hard superhero fan, I know the best way to respond to plot holes is to just relax and go with them.
Everything we know about Varric says he is a keen judge of humanity and a clever schemer with a heart of gold, willing to sacrifice his own time and well-being to protect those closest to him . What tickles me as a Dragon Age fan is when Bianca calls out his crossbow and says he’s also a dumb idiot who can’t shut up about the exploits of his loved ones. And I like to believe that, because it’s very endearing.