The current Age was not meant to be the Dragon Age. Throughout the last months of the Blessed Age, the Chantry was preparing to delcare the Sun Age, named for the symbol of the Orlesian Empire, which at that time sprawled over much of the south of Thedas and controlled both Ferelden and what is not Nevarra. It was to be a celebration of Orlesian imperial glory.
But as the rebellion in Ferelden reached a head and the Battle of River Dane was about to begin, a peculiar event occurred: a rampage, the rising of a dreaded high dragon. Dragons had been thought pratically exinct since the days of the Nevarran dragon hunts, and they say that to see this beast rise from the Frostbacks was both majestic and terrifying. As the rampage began and the high dragon decimated the countryside in its search for food, the elderly Divine Faustine II abruptly declared the Dragon Age.
Some say the Divine was declaring support for Orlais in the battle against Ferelden, since the dragon is an element of the Dufayel family heraldry of King Meghren, the so-called Usurper King of Ferelden. Be that as it may, the high dragon’s rampage turned towards the Orlesian side of the Frostback Mountains, killing hundreds and sending thousands more fleeing to the northern coast. The Ferelden rebels won the Battle of River Dane, ultimately securing their independence.
Many this think the Dragon Age will come to represent a time of violent and dramatic change for all of Thedas. It remains to be seen.
-- From The Studious Theologian, by Brother Genitivi, Chantry scholar, 9:25 Dragon (Five years before the start of the Blight).
