Well I think I can give the players some insight on this really carefully crafted fantasy world which I find really pleasant and entertained. Firstly I'll transcribe a passage of the most distinctive feature of the world and then give a small explanation of the strange and important words.
"Thedas is a land of fierce diversity, from the assassin-princes of Antiva to the faded griffons of the Anderfels, but in my travels, I have found one tale that unites the people of this land. It is a story of pride and damnation, and although the telling differs, the essence of the tale remains the same.
At the height of its power, the Tevinter Imperium stretched over much of Thedas, uniting the known world under the rule of the tyrannical magisters. It is said that the Old Gods whom the magisters worshipped gave them the knowledge of blood magic, and the magisters used this forbidden power to cement their rule. The blood of elven slaves and humans alike ran down imperial altars to fuel magister greed, the tales of their excesses so horrifying that one can only be grateful that blood magic is prohibited today.
But all that stands tall must eventually fall. Perhaps they foresaw their ruin, or perhaps their pride knew no bounds, but whatever the reason, the magisters dared to open a magical portal into the Golden City at the heart of the Fade. They sought to usurp the Maker's throne, long left unattended in the Golden City after the Maker turned his back on his creations. They would storm heaven itself with their power and become as gods.
This is what the Chantry, in its oft-exercised tendency to understate, refers to as the second sin.
According to most versions of the tale, the magisters did indeed reach the Golden City and walked into the home of the Maker, where no living being before them had dared, or been able, to tread. But humanity is not meant to walk in heaven. The magisters were wicked with pride and other sins, and their presence tainted the Golden City. What once was a perfect, holy citadel became a twisted home of darkness and nightmares. The magisters were expelled back through their gateway and cursed for their treachery. As the Golden City had been tainted, so were the magisters twisted and transformed into things of darkness--the very first of the darkspawn. The Golden City, once a shining beacon at the heart of the Fade, became the Black City, a reminder of all that man's pride has cost."
“People today have little concept of the consequences of the second sin. Oh, believe me when I say that when asked, pious, Chantry-going folk will curse the use of foul magic, spitting and snapping their fingers--but none live today who actually remember the horror that was unleashed so very long ago. Whatever records might have existed regrettably did not survive the chaos and ignorance that was to follow. We have only the tales of survivors handed down through the murky ages and the dogma of the Chantry to instruct us, and that is precious little indeed.
I believe I am not understating when I say that the second sin unleashed the bane of all life upon Thedas. The darkspawn are more virulent than the worst plague, a heartless force of nature that came into our world like an ill wind. We know from accounts of later Blights (as these darkspawn invasions came to be called--never has a more appropriate name existed) that the darkspawn spread disease and famine wherever they tread. The earth itself is corrupted by their presence, the sky roiling with angry black clouds. I do not exaggerate, my friends, when I say that a mass gathering of darkspawn is an omen of dread cataclysm.
It is said that those cursed magisters who became the first darkspawn scratched at the very earth to find solace in the darkness of the dwarven Deep Roads, and there in the shadows they multiplied. Whether by intelligent design or by some last vestige of worship in their minds, they attempted to locate the Old Gods they had once served. They found what they sought: Dumat, first among the Old Gods, once known as the Dragon of Silence before the Maker imprisoned him and all his brethren beneath the earth for the first sin: usurping the Maker's place in mankind's heart.
The slumbering dragon awoke, freed from the Maker's prison by his twisted followers, and became corrupted himself. Dumat was transformed into the first archdemon, his great and terrible power given will by a rotting, unholy mind. With the darkspawn horde following, Dumat rose and took wing in the skies once again, bringing ruin to the world the Maker had created. The Old God had become the eye of a dark storm that would ravage the entire world.”
--An excerpt from "Tales of the Destruction of Thedas, by Brother Genitivi, Chantry Scholar"
Thedas: The known world. Thedas is a massive continent sepparated in two halves by a great portion of the main ocean named the Waking sea. To the south is Ferelden, a land of medieval free folk, home of a great human city, Denerim, the tower of Magi, a place where all mages go for their formal instruction and contention, the dwarven underground city of Ozammar, and one of the nomadic dalish elven clans, that wander the Brecilia's forest. Humans of Ferelden are picture as medieval supersticious folk. To the west of Ferelden lies Orlais, a land of "french" speaking, refined and artistic folk, in which elves are slaves (along with lower class humans). To the north there are other 6 realms, each with it's story and characteristics. Of note is the remains of the Tevinter empire.
Fade: A world of spirits, a place were all people go when dreaming. Mages can travel to the Fade using rituals, and drain their spells from this "plane". The fade is inhabited by spirits of all sorts. There are good spirits, but there are also evil entities, demons, who seek to twist and destroy life, and have a powerful desire to enter the world of the living. They usually search for mages in the fade to possess. If the mage is unable to resist the demon, he turns into an abomination, his body is twisted and tained by the demon, and his spirit lost in the fade forever.
Maker: The god of the Humans, a monoteistic entity that created everything. He once inhabited the Golden Citadel, a place in the heart of the Fade. Ancient and Dalish elves workship their own gods, and dwarves workship Paragons, ancestors that performed great deeds in favour of the dwarven people.
Darkspawn: Evil monstrous humanoids, that ravage the land during the Blights, when they come out of their underground tunnels and attempt to destroy the known world.
Archdemon: The Old Gods, patrons of the Tevinter Empire were ancient dragons that were cursed by the Maker, and imprisioned underground. Sporadically, this powerful and corrupted dragons awake and lead a hord of darkspawn to the surface and attempt to destroy the work of the Maker.
