Is it just me or does dragon Age Origins take terms from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time book series?

OK, Dragon Age terms:

-the Blight

-darkspawn

-gray wardens



I'm sure there is more! I watched 1 trailer and recognized these.



Wheel of Time:

-the Great Blight( or just Blight)

-shadowspawn

-Warders (renowned warriors)



So.....the game looks extremely fun but it seems like they are ripping off Robert Jordan.Is it just me or does dragon Age Origins take terms from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time book series?
Yes. You can cruise the Dragon Age Wiki, they have a few similarities listed on the easter egg page. Three characters, the most prominent being Loghain. There's a ring you can find that is an ouroboros- like those the Aes Sedai wear in WoT. The Blight and its association with the darkspawn is pretty obvious. There is a blight disease in DA that causes things to mutate into evil monsters, while the Blight in WoT is a place, it also causes things to mutate into hideous monsters. The Darkspawn and Shadowspawn are similar generic terms, so it might be tempting to pass it off as a coincidence, but considering there are darkspawn called 'genlocks' and 'hurlocks', and the primary shadowspawn are called 'trollocs', it is rather suspicious.



The Circle of Magi and the Aes Sedai are also noticeably similar. They are organizations for training magicians that live in towers. In WoT, male 'channelers' will become corrupted by their power if left unchecked, go insane, and result of the deaths of themselves and others. To counter this, the 'Red Ajah' from the Aes Sedai hunt these rogue channelers down and 'gentle' them, cutting them off from their source of magic. When a female is cut off, it is called being 'stilled'. In DA, mages that are outside the circle are hunted down by Templars for similar reasons. Mages deemed to weak to resist corruption are turned into 'tranquil' which share many characteristics with gentled/stilled. The White tower of the Aes Sedai are divided into different groups with different philosophies called 'ajahs' while their DA equivalents are called 'fraternities' which fill the same niche.



The fade is similar to the dream world in WoT.



The Qunari are similar to the seanchan. Both are asian-influenced overseas expansionist empires that keep their spellcasters on leashes and consider them little more then objects.



Warders/Wardens both gain the ability to link with and sense the presence of another through magic, in Warders, it is the aes sedai they are bound to, in Wardens, it is the darkspawn.



So yes, there are heavy influences from WoT on Dragon Age. While some references would be a nice easter egg for fans of the series, DA has a LOT of 'references' to Wheel of Time and other works to be chalked up to inspiration or homages-It has more aspects inspired or taken from other sources then any other Bioware game that I have played to date, and I have been playing since the first Baldur's Gate. In my opinion it reeks of lazy writing, and possibly plagiarism, but others might have a higher tolerance for this sort of thing then I do.Is it just me or does dragon Age Origins take terms from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time book series?
They are not taking stuff from the wheel of time. Vague, generic terms are just coincidental. You could say that the wheel of time books ripped off some from the old Warcraft games where there are blight and wardens.