In a tweet posted today, David Gaider announced that he was departing from BioWare after 17 years writing for the company.

He started out working on Baldur’s Gate 2 and has furthermore written for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights. He was also the lead writer for Dragon Age from the series’ inception till March of last year.

He left Dragon Age for a BioWare project undisclosed and now leaves BioWare for a place undisclosed. However, it seems that there is a place that he is moving to. “As to where I’m heading next, that announcement will come in due time – today’s about saying goodbye and packing up”, he said in an email to Polygon following the announcement of his departure.

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He wrote in the same email that it was his decision to leave and that the parting was amicable: “It was indeed my decision, not one made easily since BioWare’s been very good to me”.

In addition to being the primary writer for characters as varied as HK-47 (Knights of the Old Republic I), Alistair (Dragon Age: Origins), Morrigan (Dragon Age: Origins) and the ”fully gay” Dorian (Inquisition), Gaider also turned his hand to novels and comics based in the Dragon Age universe (The Stolen Throne, The Calling, The Silent Grove).

Moreover, the first entry in the BioWare ‘Awesome’ sub-page on TV Tropes pertains to him. Another interesting fact is that he has never, in all those years, written a romance with a dwarf in it.

The mysterious ‘New IP’ that Gaider was working on is still in production according to BioWare producer Cameron Lee:

I hope that news is of some small comfort to you.