Flesh Golems? Bad Idea.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.
Aunn Aeducan stood silently staring at the cave-in behind her for a few moments before beginning to speak. She had never been particularly fond of House Dace and now she was almost painfully reminded of this fact. "You do realize, I hope, that I am a very busy woman."
Jerrik and Brogan Dace exchanged a glance before replying.
"Of course we're aware of this," Jerrik assured her.
"Not only am I the only living Paragon but I also am the head of House Aeducan and, with the…unfortunate events following King Harrowmont's coronation, I really do have quite a bit to do getting my House back in order," Aunn continued.
"Indeed," Brogan said neutrally, uncertain of where she was going with this.
"Not to mention those weeks that it took to convince our King to let Ferelden troops into the Deep Roads to help retake Thaigs." Aunn shook her head. "He was so opposed to that idea that even though I asked the King and Queen of Ferelden to give me a head start, the troops were still waiting outside the gates of Orzammar for two full days before they were allowed in. I've been so busy that I could not even venture to Denerim to inform the Queen that I was going to have to turn down her and the First Warden's oh-so-generous offer to make me the Warden Commanding Arlessa of Amaranthine. I don't think they expected my refusal but they really should have known better than to try and order me about."
"This Arl Loghain certainly seems capable," Brogan offered.
Aunn nodded. "That he is. I'm glad that they abandoned their initial plan to send him to Orlais so he can actually be of some use to Ferelden since they're not exactly facing an overabundance of Wardens. Just the same, the reason I'm bringing this up is because I want to make sure that you're well aware that I don't have a lot of time to waste. I came here because Loghain sent me your request. Why you made it to him when you were requesting me is beyond me but either way, the letter did get to me. You wanted me to come investigate Brogan's disappearance and, because there was a possibility of recreating Caridin's research, I agreed."
"That's a pretty good summary of recent events, yes," Jerrik agreed.
"So then I'm sure you can appreciate just how much this appalling waste of time is bothering me," Aunn concluded.
"Waste of time?" Jerrik couldn't believe it. "How was this a waste of time? I asked you to help find my brother and the rest of the expedition and, while we were too late for the rest of the expedition, my brother's here safe and sound. It's a shame that the research couldn't be salvaged but that was hardly one of our goals setting out."
"We did succeed in our stated goals," Aunn conceded. "Or at least part of it. Your brother was really the only one to make it out alive." And wasn't it strange that she was now faced with two brothers from the Orzammar nobility who actually were genuinely concerned about each other? And were from House Dace, at that? Granted, they were apparently very distant cousins of the main branch but Jerrik's seemingly heartfelt concern for his brother's safety had been what had first interested her in the matter.
"They died quickly," Brogan said quietly. "Probably before it occurred to anyone that something had gone wrong. I was only safe because that creature existed in a different realm than the blue one that I had hidden in."
"It's alright, Brogan," Jerrik said softly, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder. "It's over now. We can go back home and pretend that none of this ever happened."
Brogan looked unconvinced. In time, the memories would fade but for right now they were still painfully fresh in his mind.
"While our mission might have been technically labeled a success," Aunn said once they were done, "Brogan's mission was a complete and utter waste of time. And for that matter, so was the initial attempt done by Nereda the Tevinter mage and…whoever the dwarven overseer was. The records will probably be available once we get to the Shaperate."
"Some things just aren't worth it," Brogan agreed, looking haunted.
Jerrik stood aghast. "How can you possibly say that? Yes, we've lost the research when the whole place collapsed but that was hardly inevitable! Just because they didn't succeed does not mean that it was not worth trying!"
"I agree," Aunn said, much to his surprise. "The fact that it's lost is actually one of the least pointless things about it."
"You think trying to recreate Caridin's Anvil of the Void is pointless?" Jerrik couldn't believe it.
"When one goes about it the way that those up at Amgarrak were going about it then yes, yes it is extremely pointless," Aunn confirmed. "For one thing, Fade Spirits? Really? If you'll recall, the dwarves that recently tried to recreate that research in Orzammar and attempted to use a Fade Spirit suffered a similar fate to those here; the Fade Spirit wouldn't listen to them and responded rather poorly to being trapped here. And by 'rather poorly', of course, I mean 'decided to kill them all.'"
"The two events happened centuries apart," Jerrik objected. "And those in Orzammar hadn't known what happened in Amgarrak, no one did. Besides, two isolated occurrences are hardly enough to deem that using Fade Spirits is a bad idea."
"And how many times of the exact same thing happening will it take before it is okay to realize that maybe this kind of thing is going to keep happening whenever we try to use Fade Spirits?" Aunn demanded. "They are different than dwarves or even the other species of Thedas. We don't really understand them and we certainly haven't been able to find a way to control them! From what I can tell, Fade Spirits fall into one of two categories. The type that is completely uninterested in our world and thus knows nothing about it and the type that wants to live here and is qualified as a demon. Neither of those two options really sound like good candidates to bring here, particularly given our lack of ability to control them."
"We'll figure out how to control them," Jerrik insisted. "I'm sure Caridin didn't hit upon the idea of how to control the dwarves he turned into golems right away, either."
"Aside from the fact that at the beginning, Caridin only used volunteers who were infinitely less likely to want him dead than random Fade Spirits," Aunn began. "There's also the fact that it has been tried and failed at least twice that we know of. Maybe one day someone will figure out how to control a Fade Spirit but in the meantime it keeps ending in disaster with no one getting any closer to figuring out how to do it and it's not like we even have someone with the smithing genius of Branka or Caridin around to solve this problem."
"Say I concede that people should be more careful when experimenting with Fade Spirits so that this quits happening," Jerrik said slowly. "That doesn't explain why this was a waste of time? Just because they used a Fade Spirit instead of something safer doesn't mean that it couldn't be used for a dwarf spirit or something."
"You read the unnamed overseer's journal, right?" Aunn asked rhetorically.
"I did," Jerrik confirmed. He glanced over at his brother who had started to ignore them though whether that was out of boredom or trauma Jerrik had no idea.
"What, exactly, is so great about golems?" Aunn inquired. "And no, I'm not unaware of why they're so useful but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter."
"Golems are…" Jerrik trailed off. What a truly bizarre question. "Golems are stronger fighters than the rank-and-file warrior. They can take and do more damage. Given our slight difficulty fielding warriors, the idea of sacrificing one dwarf – and it doesn't even have to be a noble or a warrior – to be able to fight like a dozen is just sensible."
"I agree," Aunn told him. "Which is why the thought that they decided that iron was too sodding expensive and so they were going to kidnap casteless and hack apart the bodies of several of them to create one flesh golem is so sodding stupid!"
"They're only casteless," Jerrik pointed out.
Aunn sighed. "I had a feeling you'd say that. And chances are that there are many others that would agree with you but just the same, the casteless are not an infinite resource. If you have to use a good half a dozen of them per flesh golem then there's really a limit as to how man you'll be able to make before the casteless are all dead or have fled to the Surface."
"It would certainly rid us of our casteless problem," Jerrik reasoned.
Aunn rubbed her temple in frustration. There was, of course, no point in trying to convince him that there was anything morally wrong with murdering all of the casteless to create these bizarre fleshy golems as he'd never believe her. "And it would also mean that golems could only be produced for a short time until the 'casteless problem' was gone. And then there's the fact that a large the reason golems are so effective is because stone and iron is a lot more durable and long-lasting than flesh."
"The one we fought before was pretty tough," Jerrik argued. "And it seemed to be preserved well."
"We don't know how that was done but, considering the mage presence, magic was likely involved in the preservation," Aunn countered. "And the only reason that golem was so difficult to kill was because it kept summoning the undead and it wouldn't stop hopping around. While that is useful for evasive maneuvers, avoiding getting within attack range won't really help kill any darkspawn which was the whole reason to recreate golems in the first place."
"Amgarrak might not have perfected golems," Jerrik admitted reluctantly. "But we still could have built off of what they did, only instead using dwarven souls and iron and stone. Unfortunately, due to cave-ins beyond our control none of that is an option…"
"Probably for the best," Aunn remarked dryly. "Or else we may have had to deal with the return of fleshy golems powered by unstable Fade Spirits…"
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