The devs. for this game, including David Gaider, have admitted that they have been inspired by lots of fictional works, including A song of Fire and Ice, World of Warcraft, Warhammer etc. The challenge is to take these inspirations and through hard work create a believable in which we, the gamers, go along. This means that from the opening cinematics we buy it, we buy the idea and the concept of the world. That in this world exists monsters and zombies and ogres and elves, dwarfs
and (low) magic as well. As far as I can tell, Bioware have done a good job making players believe the setting...and the things that come to pass in the setting as well.
Elves are treated as second-class citizens, dwarvs have no magic and the political meanderings is very very abundant in this game, it seems. If you read the entry in the codex (at the site for the game) you will learn how it come to pass that the elves do not live to a brillion years anymore. A tragic tale of love, loss and sorrow this is.
And yes, the Fade is probably inspired by the Planes in the D&D setting. However, this setting in D&D, the planes are now officially dead and buried...so the problem is what? And originality?
It may well be that Bioware can't make unique or original campaigns or games. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Many good things in life are neither creative, original nor are they unique...
