Disclaimer: All rights and names belong to BioWare, I don't own any of it but my character whom I see as just a loan from the creators.

PROLOGUE

"And so is the Golden City blackened

With each step you take in my Hall.

Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting.

You have brought Sin to Heaven

And doom upon all the world."

~Canticle of Threnodies 8:13

The long hike over a high rise toward the edge of a cliff did not tire me, despite the dragging of my heavy armour. Every step I felt a sense of dread as I soon saw it, the aftermath of battle and savagery. Three bodies, strung up by the neck to a tree, swayed in the open breeze, as though they were dancing to a steady rhythm. I found myself surrounded by the corpses of fallen soldiers and villagers left in bloodied pools that stained the ground. Then another body a few metres away from the edge, lifeless and still and when I moved it revealed a bone hilted sword stuck in his chest.

I had sent envoys a couple of days ago to several locations all across Fereldan and knew something was amiss when one had failed to make contact. I figured there might have been complications but this drew something else out, for the style of blade shook me to the core. Then I heard the rustling of footsteps in the leaves behind me, the sudden fell stench of decay and corruption. Was it the dead that littered the southern grass? No, something fowl, something worse.

I reacted in a flash, the result of decades of training, dodging a blade coming from my left, trapping its wielder and relieving it as I spun the assailant away, another one came at me and as I had suspected and feared, I was staring into the face of a monstrous being, horrid and deformed mirror of humanity. Their own sword swung up across the monster's armoured chest, piercing the metal and the flesh and once it fell, I plunged the weapon down to end it.

It was a darkspawn, a herald for the evil days to come. A monstrous and disgusting aberration as old as the Chantry of Andraste itself.

I then marched over to the first assailant, a larger brute, but like any darkspawn, disfigured mutations with grey and often dirty complexions vacant and bloodshot eyes on a large head that resembled slightly a human skull yet still with some skin to hold it all. He cackled and growled like a wild dog as he tried to find his feet. My armour clanked as I approached the creature, with much prejudice and kicked it off the ledge, watching it fall only to have my weathered eyes bear witness to this haunting sight.

The Chantry teaches us that it was the hubris of men which brought the darkspawn into our world. Tevinter mages had sought to usurp Heaven, but instead, they destroyed it. They were cast out twisted and cursed by their own corruption and returned as monsters, the first of the darkspawn.

They became a blight upon the lands, unstoppable and relentless.

The dwarven kingdoms hewn from under the mountains were the first to fall, and from the Deep Roads that they excavated, the darkspawn drove at us, again and again until finally, we neared annihilation.

Until the Grey Wardens came. Men and women from every race—warriors and mages, barbarians and kings. The Grey Wardens sacrificed everything to stem the tides of darkness... and prevailed. We specialised in the hunting down and destruction of the darkspawn, to drive them back into the shadows from whence they sprouted out of.

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice; these are the words taught to us as Grey Wardens. Not as profound or illuminating as the Chant of Light but just as inspiring, just as important. It has been centuries since that first victory and we have kept our vigil. We have watched and waited for the darkspawn to return—and they always return.

But those who once called us heroes have forgotten…

As I stand at the edge of the abyss, my fists tighten as I wipe the blood and the sweat from my face. "Maker help us all," I mutter as I look on in horror. There down in the valley coming out from the mountain pass to the south, a horde of darkspawn, torches lit as they passed, and setting fire to their path of destruction. A host at over ten thousand strong, monstrous darkspawn passed through the forest lands. We are few now, and our warnings have been ignored for too long. It may even be too late, for I have seen with my own eyes what lies on the horizon. "Maker…help us all…"

—Warden-Commander Duncan

-O-

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing High-Fantasy fiction. The Dragon Age series is my favourite of all time and here I want to adapt my own experiences in Thedas as best I can—it's been a while since I've played Origins. Please comment what you guys think so far and how I might be able to improve.