While it’s highly unlikely many of us have managed to fight our way through six completions of Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare is still hard at work to provide its fans with a full blown expansion to further the gameplay experience. Announced today as “Awakening,” BioWare has detailed the first official expansion for its highly successful RPG.

Awakening gives players the opportunity to explore Amaranthine in order to get a better understanding of what motivates the Dark Span to do what they do. I’d imagine that this adds quite a few hours of extended gameplay to the title and should please many fans of the game.

Some key notes from the expansion are below.

• Awakening provides exciting new ways for players to customize their heroes and party, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes, allowing even greater customization and replayability.
• Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon.
• Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can continue their adventures from Dragon Age, or begin with a brand new party.

According to the press release, the entire idea behind Awakening is the following.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare’s next thread in the Dragon Age: Origins tapestry, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens. In addition to rebuilding the ranks of the Grey Wardens, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon dragon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

Awakening is scheduled for release on March 16th and is priced at a hefty $39.99.