Dragon Age: Inquisition Executive Producer Explains 40 Endings Claim

Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah explained over at the BioWare forums what he meant when he said the game would have 40 different endings to Official Xbox Magazine, a claim that generated a fair amount of skepticism among fans. As it turns out, there are 40 different variations, but only a few unique discrete endings:

Hey guys,
I just want to clarify the endings in Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age Inquisition’s endings variations come in three levels
1. Minor variations based upon choices you make in the game or previous games. There are HUNDREDS of these variations.
2. Major variations based upon larger decisions in the game. There are about forty of these
3. Completely unique endings. There are a small number of these