New details coming out of Game Informer's latest issue reveal a host of new details about Dragon Age: Inquisition. As Bioware says, a lot of the decisions they've made with the games stem, not only from their desire Dragon Age, but the RPG as a genre in itself.
So, you start out as the last surviving member of the Inquisition, and you can choose to be human, dwarf or elf, as well as male or female. Thedas is in chaos, as Chantry wages war against the mages, Orlais deals with a civil war, and demons enter the human world unchecked. The Inquisition is an independent party that answers to no one, and specializes in looking into conspiracies. As the sole Inquisitor, you are in a unique position to investigate why the world has plunged into chaos.
Instead of being a common foot soldier, you are the default head of the organization as you rebuild it from the ground up. In your quest you will have to gain the trust of others, but by clearing objectives, obtaining items and helping others, you can raise your power and respect stats, making it easier to negotiate with others.
Dropping the conceit of having them narrated to you, you will make game events happen yourself as you perform them. The world is partly inspired by Origins, but will be much larger and it won't be easy to explore every single thing. Bioware emphasizes that you won't have to do everything, but the world is robust enough that you can experience each playthrough differently. You'll be playing each location like they are self-contained open worlds. In spite of the freedom in terms of objectives, Bioware has managed it so that they will still tell a core story, with leveling up the main factor to advance you through the game.
Source: Gaming Everything