Hearing a Geordie accent inBaldur’s Gate 3made me jump. I was excited, but it took a while to sink in that I was actually hearing a Geordie accent. In a video game! They’re so rare that I just couldn’t believe it, I even called over my partner and made them listen to double check.
For the Yanks, Geordie refers to anyone in England from the North East, more specifically Newcastle or surrounding areas like Gateshead and North/South Shields. The most north that we tend to see in movies, games, and TV is Yorkshire (around 80 miles south of Newcastle), unless they skip England altogether and just go for good ol’ Scotland.
The most northAssassin’s Creed Valhallawent was York, despite Vikings landing in Newcastle and its surrounding towns (like Jarrow), and as far as 68 miles north of those.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s slim Geordie presence was a welcome surprise, but it was a small role in Act 3 that you could easily miss. That’s still huge considering the drought of Geordies in gaming otherwise, butDragon Age: The Veilguardgoes much further.
One of the four voices you can choose from for your Rook is Bryony Corrigan. She’s from Cullercoats, which is just outside of Newcastle, near the aforementioned North Shields. A Geordie front and centre in one of the biggest RPG series in games, with her accent coming through strong in nearly every cutscene. It’s incredible, and it still catches me off guard to hear an accent that local in the world of Thedas.
Growing up as a closted kid who preferredPower Rangersto football, the most Geordie thing I ever saw on TV was Ant & Dec. Again, for the Yanks, they’re like if there were two Ryan Seacrests and people actually liked them. One of their most noteworthy programs is Britain’s Got Talent, which they’ve hosted for 17 years. But there’s one episode that sticks with me nearly two decades later.
There’s a strange stigma against the North East that we’re thick and uncultured. I’ve no idea where it comes from, but I ran into it constantly at my local university when meeting southerners who had come up to study, and it was all over the small screen when I was growing up. Any time a ‘northerner’ (again, rarely as high up as Newcastle) appeared, the jokes would start rolling in about us being bumbling idiots. So, when Britain’s Got Talent was due to visit Ant & Dec’s homeland, I was ecstatic. A chance to turn the tables.
Cheryl Cole, Charlie Hunnam, Mark Gattis, Ridley Scott (a fellow Sand Dancer), Rowan Atkinson, Sam Fender, etc, etc. — the North East is rich with talent!
The entire episode was a downer. Bad talent, Simon Cowell miserable at the idea of stepping foot up here (and making sure you knew it), Ant & Dec growingly impatient, and the entire thing played off as a joke. The stigma combined with this gut-punch of an episode sparked a big decision for me: I tried to lose my accent.
It started to feel embarrassing being a Geordie, so I dropped the slang, tried to ape southern YouTubers and TV personalities, until eventually the Geordie edges were sanded down. I regret it now, but as a kid, I was starting to hate that side of myself.
The Veilguard is a breath of fresh air and makes me proud to be from the North East. Corrigan’s performance isn’t a joke. She’s unashamedly northern, but every bit as witty and intelligent as her co-stars. There’s so much heart behind her Rook, because her performance is allowed to be earnest and vulnerable. Seeing that on the big stage that isDragon Age, bringing a Geordie accent to a global audience, is unbelievably heartwarming. Especially because of how much northern culture influences some of the biggest fantasy icons out there.
Just look atGame of Thrones, where the north is made up of snowy tundras with imposing castles ruled by honourable lords who refuse to bow down to southern customs, all while defending them from a world they so ignorantly dismiss. It’s clearly inspired by its real world counterpart (much of the series is rooted in English history).
But when we look at who played the Starks in Game of Thrones, we don’t see northern culture shine through as much as it could. Sean Bean is from Sheffield and Richard Madden from Scotland, again skipping over the North East. Other actors making up the Starks, like Kit Harington and Isaac Hempstead Wright, are from as south as London! The flagship northern family doesn’t feel that northern, and it’s a problem across so much of fantasy in general, because we so rarely see anything beyond the River Tees.
The only Geordie accent of note in the series is from Davos Seaworthy, played by Irish actor Liam Cunningham. While Davos turns out to be a very worldwise character, his defining trait is that he grew up poor and cannot read.
Dragon Age is making huge steps in changing that by putting a North Eastern actor front and centre. I just hope that more developers and casting directors take a note from The Veilguard’s book. Don’t stop at Yorkshire. There’s a whole world beyond the Tyke that so few are willing to tap into, and there’s no doubt a wealth of talent who haven’t been given their dues yet, as Corrington so clearly shows. We need more Geordies in gaming, especially fantasy.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
