Grey Wardens

Put in as simple terms as possible, Thedas as we know it would not exist without the Grey Wardens. When a world on the brink of destruction needed champions to defeat the cataclysmic threat of the darkspawn, they rose and met the challenge. The Wardens are a small, guarded, exceptionally skilled group of warriors dedicated to ending the threat of a Blight when it arises and eradicating any stray darkspawn that appear in the meantime. They rose to prominence over 1200 years ago during the First Blight. After nearly a century of ceding ground to the darkspawn and their Archdemon leader, a group of Tevinter and dwarven warriors banded together to fight back. Creating a mysterious ritual called the Joining, renouncing the oaths sworn to their countries, and utilizing aggressive tactics that reclaimed lost lands, the Wardens gave hope to the rest of the continent and slowly began to push the darkspawn back. Eventually, 192 years after it had begun, the Blight was ended when the Archdemon was slain by the Grey Wardens, who immediately became heroes to a battered continent. Headquartered where they were founded, Weisshaupt Fortress in the north of Thedas, they watched and waited for the darkspawn to rise again. Which they inevitably did, four more times over the centuries, so far. And each time, the Wardens were able to end the threat at great cost. Most recently, the Hero of Ferelden ended the Fifth Blight in a remarkably short time, curtailing the massive swath of destruction associated with the typically catastrophic events.

While their fame has waxed and waned throughout their history, usually in proportion with how many darkspawn are wandering around at a particular time and place, the Grey Wardens have been present all across Thedas since their inception. Their motto is a succinct summation of their mission: “In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.” They use a particular set of skills, abilities, and political powers to combat the darkspawn. With a few notable exceptions, particularly an attempted coup that got them exiled from Ferelden a few hundred years ago, they stay politically neutral. This has often irked the various countries of Thedas, including when they refused to join the unified effort to repel the Qunari invasion. However, they are immune from judgment when it comes to their fight against the darkspawn. They also possess the Right of Conscription, which allows a Warden to induct anyone, at any time, no matter the circumstances. The Wardens will accept a person of any social or economic standing, and of any race, that they believe can help them in their fight. The Joining ritual undertaken by all Wardens is, while potentially deadly, essential to their abilities. It gives them the power to sense nearby darkspawn, sometimes hear their communications, and most critically of all, the capability to slay an Archdemon. Only a Grey Warden can kill an Archdemon permanently to end a Blight, and only by sacrificing themselves. Finally, as their heraldry would suggest, the Wardens used to ride trained griffons into battle, but the creatures have been extinct for hundreds of years. Perhaps my greatest regret as Inquisitor is my failure to rediscover the lost animals. I’ve encountered many supposedly vanished or nonexistent things in my time, many of which I didn’t actually want to find, and I’ve heard too much about griffons for too long to just have them actually be gone. Finding griffons and bringing them back would be, in my opinion, in the running for the greatest achievement of my Inquisitorial career, which includes saving the world multiple times, if you recall.