A/N Blood is the name of Elisa's weapon of choice; it's similar to a glaive (long bladed staff/spear) but a bit shorter. It's similar to Hawke's weapon in the DA2 destiny trailer so you can look that up if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

OK guys, this Story is offically dead. I may come back to it at some time but if I do so it will involve a complete re-write including but not limited to a rebalancing of Elisa and Neira, a redoing the personalities of all the main characters and an actual plan - the main reason this story died is because the only plan I had in my head so let that be a warning to all aspiring writers.

Elisa Cousland looked at the bodies surrounding her. She had convinced her twin sister Alice to get her mother and father to safety while she held off Howe's attackers, she had convinced the knights that a single person with a modified glaive like her Blood could hold the hall as well as the group of them if they sealed off one of the doorways and sent them to clear the keep of any intruders that had already made it inside. Everyone knew of the skill with which she wielded Blood and agreed that she had the best chance to hold off the invaders while the rest cleared the keep.

But they had not imagined the sheer numbers that Howe had brought.

Instead of creating a doorway of death as she had originally planned the sheer mass of invaders had pushed her back into the passageway. Half the forces that had come through had gone off to take the keep and the other half had moved out to surround her in what should have been her final stand.

But it had not been.

Now Elisa stood surrounded by the corpses of roughly a quarter of all the soldiers in the entire arling of Amaranthine; All dead by her hand. Looking around at not just the bodies but the wounds that she had inflicted on them she realized that even if she could take Highever back from the Howe's men she would not be able to stay here any longer, her secret was out. She grabbed a pack of provisions from the corpse of one of the soldiers that she had killed and headed into the wilderness surrounding the place that had been her home for almost 19 years.

oOo

Alice Cousland struggled to stop the tears as she followed Duncan away from the only home she had ever known. In a single horrible night she had lost everything: her parents, her home, even her beloved twin sister was most likely dead after Howe had betrayed them and attacked Highever. Even her dreams of what her life would be had been shattered after Duncan had recruited her into the gray wardens. The cry of a bird drew her attention upwards for the first time in several hours and she realized that they were not headed to Ostagar where the darkspawn were gathered.

"Where are we going?" she inquired, her curiosity overpowering her grief.

"After 400 years of humanity ignoring the darkspawn we are very low on recruits, we're going to see if we can find anyone in Denerim"

oOo

In retrospect, Duran thought Bhelen's plan was both brilliant and very obvious; giving the casteless dwarf poisoned weapons and then putting the rest of the poison in his room and a considerable sum in hers must have been very easy and once done, all he had to do was push for a quick trial so no one could find out what he'd done. Getting Tritan to compete in the proving after Duran had won the one held in his honor must have been laughably easy, Bhelen's lies about Tritan's plan to have him killed aside, Tritan must have felt threatened by his display of skill and ability. A little poison on a blade, a drunken warrior and a casteless that had nothing to lose and Bhelen was an only child.

At least they had had the decency to give him and Natia the poison on top of a shield and sword for him and a pair of daggers for her, a small mercy if the darkspawn overwhelmed them. Normally being cast out of the city like this was a death sentence but Duran remembered the location of a grey warden patrol not far from where they were now, if they could reach the wardens before they left then they should be able to follow them to the surface and safety, even if it meant becoming grey wardens themselves.

A sound drew in the tunnels ahead drew his attention and he drew his sword and began to step forward cautiously, behind him he heard Natia draw her own blades and settle into the fighter's crouch that had proven more than a match for the warriors of the proving only a few days ago. Twice before they had come across groups of darkspawn and they were most likely aware of their presence now, they needed to find the grey wardens quickly or the next battle may be their last.

Stepping ahead Duran quickly realized that the noise he had heard was sounds of fighting, judging from their location it was a good chance that it may be the grey wardens. Exiting the tunnel, Duran looked around to realize that he was right and the wardens were engaging the darkspawn, quickly analyzing the scene he realized that the size of the force was only dangerous with emissary in the back ranks. Turned to Natia, about to order her to kill the emissary when she dashed by, saying "Emissary's gotta die, draw their attention" before blending into the shadows so well that he could barely see her. Shaking his head at arrogance of his own presumptions Duran readied himself and unleashed a mighty war cry before smashing into a group of darkspawn archers.

While the war cry had the desired effect it also placed him in a great deal of danger, Duran found himself holding his shield up to block arrows almost immediately after taking down the first couple of spawn and having to dive to the side once as the emissary tried to cook him with a rather large fireball. Fortunately Natia slit the emissary's throat right after the fireball was launched and the tide of battle quickly turned in the warden's favor – and theirs as well.

After the battle the two were approached by the warden in charge of the expedition "Greetings" he called out "and thank you for your aid, I must inquire however, what brings you to the deep roads alone?"

Natia looked over to Duran, unsure what to say and clearly leaving it up to him "We have been exiled from Orzammar and seek to join you in your fight against the darkspawn" Duran replied "if you'll have us"

The warden didn't even blink "Two recruits as skilled as you two and blight on the surface? I'd consider taking you if you'd killed half the Assembly" he turned and waved for them to follow "we're about a day away from the surface and we've got what we've came for. The darkspawn are massing in the Korcari wilds and the army's gathering to meet them at Ostagar, that's where we're headed next."

A/N the trailer mentioned earlier can be found here: watch?v=jlACgYHtWCI

Also, there will be a second prologue where I introduce the other origins character; I won't focus too much on origins that remain the same as they were in game which is why I have varying amounts of focus on different origins. I will have more on how Elisa reaches the Ostagar and the grey wardens in the next chapter, also I'm going to do a bit AU on the mage Origins, partly in that there's two of them as well a few other changes. I'll do a good bit on the city elf origins, mainly due to the fact that Duncan, Alice, Kallian and Theron can't just magically appear in Ostagar but the Dalish Origins will be summarized in about two sentences, sorry.

Another thing, I know that I brought in all the Origins but this story is still mainly focused around Elisa, the leader of the group. I offer no guarantees that any of the others will survive the events of this story as I never meant for this to be a bloodless telling, I'll deviate from the game at points and there will be more than one bloodbath.

Anyways I'm still pretty new at this so please R&R