The world of Thedas, which was once a peaceful land, is now in a destructive civil war between mages who seek freedom, and templars who want to suppress magic. Thousands of natives are being killed every day in this frightening event. Divine Justinia V decides to put an end to the world’s suffering and decrees a peace conference between the mages and templars, to reach a truce. But during this conference, the world of Thedas is ripped apart by an unexpected explosion that cracks open many rifts and releases demons across the world. The explosion kills all members of the conference, leaving only the player as the lone survivor of this incident.  

The player wakes up after the catastrophic event, without any memory of what happened, but has a scar in his hand which is able to seal the demon rifts. With this outstanding ability, the player is considered to be the messiah, and is proclaimed the Herald of Andraste by the people of Thedas. He is now introduced to the Inquisition, an organization created by Divine Justinia with the purpose of restoring the order in the case on a war, and becomes the leader of the group. It is now your duty to use this miraculous power, with the help from loyal teammates and members of the Inquisition, to seal all rifts across Thedas and restore the world peace once and for all.