Blights

“Blight” is the proper name for the times in history when the darkspawn have awakened an Archdemon and assaulted the surface of Thedas with their full strength. These rampages have devastated the continent every several hundred years or so since they began. The darkspawn typically stay underground, tempted by the call of a sleeping Old God into finding and waking the beast. When they do, they corrupt it with their taint, transforming whatever the Old God looked like into a monstrous, dragon-like fiend that organizes the normally chaotic darkspawn into a true army and leads them to the surface. When this occurs, a Blight has officially begun. The first Blight was 1200 years ago, led by the Archdemon Dumat and lasted for 192 years. It pushed both the dwarves and the surface-dwelling races of Thedas to the brink and only ended after the rise of the Grey Wardens and their ability to permanently kill an Archdemon. This is the only way to stop a Blight and send the darkspawn back underground, as they panic without a true leader. Each successive attack has been shorter as knowledge of the signs of a coming Blight and how to stop one have grown with time, lessening the havoc the monsters are able to wreak. The Second Blight, led by Zazikel around 800 years ago, lasted 90 years and was stopped by the combined might of the fledgling Orlesian Empire and the Wardens. The Third Blight was headed by Toth, began over 600 years ago, lasted 15 years and took the armies of both Orlais and Tevinter to stop. Begun when Andoral was awoken, the Fourth Blight started 400 years ago and only lasted 12 years, but political strife meant it was the armies of the Anderfels and the Free Marches that ended it.

The Fifth Blight is the most recent, and by far the shortest, darkspawn attack in history. Occurring 14 years ago and lasting only a year, this Blight was led by Urthemiel and began in the southernmost parts of Ferelden. Though the Grey Wardens were present, there were very few of them in the country at the time, as they had only recently returned from a lengthy exile after their order failed an attempted coup. King Cailan requested the aid of the Grey Wardens and Chevaliers of Orlais, but his general, Loghain Mac Tir, denied their entrance to the country due to the recent occupation of Ferelden by the Empire. Then, Loghain betrayed Cailan at the first battle of the Blight, retreated with the bulk of the army, and left both his King and the Wardens to die. After that disaster, only two young Wardens remained. Fortunately, over the next year they managed to utilize ancient Warden treaties to rally various forces from around Ferelden to their cause, solving crisis after crisis along the way, and dealt with Loghain to unite the country for the coming assault. The Blight was stopped in the capital of Denerim by the two Wardens. One, Alistair, was discovered to be Cailan’s bastard brother and ascended to the throne, where he rules to this day. I met him and his wife, Anora, in Redcliffe, actually, right after the whole time-magic nonsense. Nice guy. Anyways, the other Warden, who went on to be named the Warden-Commander of Ferelden, was a human mage named Daylen Amell, but he has gone down in history as the Hero of Ferelden. Though the Fifth Blight was blessedly short, there are two Archdemons still buried, so it is only a matter of time until another Blight begins. Hopefully there will be another HoF around to end it as quickly as the last one.