As R0me Burns said:Just want you to know that just because it takes part in a certain city doesn't mean anything major doesn't come of it.
Think about it. How do revolutions occur? They occur on small scale until it is blown in to proportion. The Champion of Kirkwall could be called the leader of such a revolution simply because of his involvement in the Kirkwall chapter of said revolution. In the end the larger scope of things is that the Circle of Magi, and by my understanding all of them, has been thrown into chaos and is no longer kept in check by the templars, the Templars are going on a mad mage killing spree because of mages seeming to think they no longer need to listen. The Chantry religion is falling rapidly because of the events that have been happening with the mages and templars and people are losing faith in the Chantry.
Also if you notice at the end they state that not only did the Warden-Commander from the first game mysteriously dissapear, but so did the Champion of Kirkwall. This means that there is something far bigger than we can imagine happening behind the scenes. Not to mention that Origins was about the 5th Blight, there are still POSSIBLY 2 more blights to go through, it is rumored in one of the possible endings of Awakening that there is a blight currently happening in the Anderfels.
As to you people saying that this game is short? Apparently you don't explore much, I just finished my second playthrough both times doing EVERY single quest in the game and it took my roughly 50-60 hours to beat. It took me 30 to get everything on Origins.
My speculation on what would happen eventually in the Dragon Age series is that if these "Heroes" of the Kirkwall and Ferelden are truely dissapearing, I feel that it may lead to a game where you have to find the lost heroes and gather them to fight a great evil that we may not know anything about yet.
After all, there are still 2 Old Gods left to kill.
While it is very true that the actual events in the game could and probably did lead to other major events, none of that stuff really happens in the game, you just get told about it at the end. I was just saying that compared to all other bioware titles I can think of, and I've played em all, the events of the actual game were a little mundane. Its not short, Its not even bad. Its a great game. But the story is mostly about a refuge making it big in a new city, and gets involved in a bloody political scenario.