The dwarf placed his hand on the hilt of his short sword. His scarred armor causing him pain from the many blows of darkspawn weapons. All around him were his comrades in arms. Each dead to their Houses in Orzammar, yet each one knew what true duty it was to die fighting the darkspawn.
He looked around at the stone, looking at the grim dwarf statue towering over them all, here amidst their ghosts of their past. He took a gloved hand and ran it over the stone at the base of the statue," you will not be forgotten," he spoke, feeling his words slide into the history of this hall. It shall be their last fight for this group of legionnaires, they were cut off from the Deep Roads.
Too many Hurlocks and Genlocks held their retreat route, including three Ogres roaring at the locked gates, the last entryway into the hall. Each hit from the Ogres sent dust falling from the high ceiling of the hall, the squeal of the metal gate piercing the silence in the hall.
The dwarf turned to his comrades," it is here were we shall find our end at last," he said to the handful legionnaires forming a semi circle around him," and when they breach, we shall slaughter all who pass, FOR ORZAMMAR!"
The gates shattered in a squeal of tortured metal and stone, first to breach was one of the three ogres, its triumphant roar cut short by a throwing axe from one of the legion. The blade of the axe embedding itself in its windpipe. From behind the falling ogre, the shouts of the other darkspawn split the air, each one pushing to gain entry to their hated enemy.
"Die well my brothers and sisters, die well."
The battle ended quickly after the breach, overwhelmed by sheer blood thirst, the legionnaires stood little chance, yet their ferocity took dozens of the sodding darkspawn scum with them.
"In order to understand the Darkspawn, you must take within you their taint," the Grey Warden Commander spoke to the assembled initiates gathered around, eyes glued to the mysterious Warden as he held a chalice of silver in his hands. The light of the moon behind the Commander proved a fierce ally to his speech, detailing the first Blight and the scarring of the Dwarven Empire. "But the true test of things comes, not from the joining, but from your actions afterwards, if you survive that is," he said with a smirk.
Each initiate's face scanned quickly to the next, tense whispers slowly cascaded forward, murmurs of doubt and despair. Yet here they all were, joined together in a common cause, to end the new blight that had befallen them. To their credit not one fled, though their fates were sealed by the blades of a dozen Grey Wardens surrounding the initiates.
Of the thirty initiates that agreed to the joining only a dozen survived. A handful of elves, dwarves, and men, now Grey Wardens.
The Warden Commander looked to those that survived," you have been given a new role in this world," he said, his voice even and solemn," you now stand above any of your kin. You alone will be the keen edge against our greatest threat."
Durgen Aeducan looked out amongst the assembled warriors of the Warrior Caste, a grim calculation set his anger burning, many of the great houses did not send their warriors. "Damned politicians," he growled under his breath," by the stone lads," he said, his voice echoing in the stone chamber," many of the great houses still fail to grasp the threat we face."
Murmurs of agreement greeted his pronouncement, though others sneered, being kin to many of those who did not show. Durgen counted out those he could see angered by his words. "It matters not though," he added," for we are the blade that shall cut the Darkspawn from our tunnels, to connect the cities feared lost to their tide of filth and corruption."
At that, all the assembled roared their agreement.