Prologue Part II
It all began in Kirkwall: The Fall of Knight-Commander Meredith, The Qunari Uprising, and The Daedric Skirmish. And of course, the Chantry's destruction and the onset of mage rebellion. Two people always stood amidst the swirling chaos: Garret Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall; and Andrew the Great, Champion of Cyrodiil.
The Hawke family fled Lothering, refugees from the Blight. Leandra, mother of the Champion and siblings Bethany and Carver, hoped to find refuge at her family's estate in Kirkwall, far to the north. While Hawke had no magical abilities, Both he and Andrew were at the heart of events that ultimately led to mage rebellion.
The Hawkes escaped the Blight with the help from Aveline Vallen, a warrior and family friend. It's said that the family were also aided by Flemeth, the notorious Witch of the Wilds. But just when Hawke had to make a difficult choice, he was aided by Andrew the Great, a native from Cyrodiil who had come from Tamriel to Thedas in hope of finding peace and quiet after the events in his own world. With his help, both Bethany and Carver safely made it to the Free Marches.
The family's first years in Kirkwall were difficult: Leandra's brother, Gamlen, had lost the family fortune. The Hawkes lived in poverty, forced to indenture themselves in return for entrance to the city. Andrew did what he could, but he couldn't keep the Hawkes from incurring an astonishing debt, though it was less than what it otherwise would have been. To pay off the debt, Hawke and Andrew were forced to work for a band of mercenaries. All the while, Hawke and Alexander did their best to hide Bethany and Carver's magic from the templars.
Opportunity eventually struck in the form of a dwarf named Bartrand Tethras, who was planning an expedition to the Deep Roads. It was a long shot, but with gold gained from the expedition, Hawke and Alexander could free the Hawke family from their criminal creditors—and further templar scrutiny.
Hawke met a rogue Grey Warden named Anders who possessed detailed maps of the Deep Roads. These maps were crucial to the expedition's success; with Andrew's aid, Hawke obtained the maps, and once he did, everything else fell quickly into place. Bethany and Carver joined Hawke and Andrew on the expedition. The siblings found ancient dwarven treasure—and a statuette formed from a strange, red lyrium. Bethany and Carver both fell victim to the Blight that suffuses the Deep Roads, but Anders led them to a group of Grey Wardens who were able to save their lives.
The gold Hawke and Andrew recovered from the Deep Roads bought back Leandra's stately childhood home in Hightown. The Hawkes had barely settled into their new home when Leandra was murdered—a deeply twisted and sinister killing. Hawke and Andrew both hunted down Quentin, the blood mage responsible, but couldn't prevent Leandra's death. To comfort him, Andrew told Hawke about how he tried to prevent Uriel Septim VII's death, but ultimately couldn't prevent his death. It helped Hawke feel better but not by much.
Leandra's tragic death was part of a critical problem facing Kirkwall: rising tensions between the city's mages, who felt increasingly oppressed, and templars, who grew increasingly suspicious of their activities. Adding to the strain, a large contingent of Qunari had also established themselves in Kirkwall, much to the growing discomfort of the city's rulers. After their dreadnaught was shipwrecked many years before, a group of stranded Qunari were allowed to remain in a cordoned-off area in Lowtown. As time passed, the Qunari made no effort to return home, and offered no explanation about why they remained.
Tensions rose to a breaking point: Revered Mother Petrice, convinced the Qunari were a threat to the Chantry's faith, incited violence between between the Qunari and the Kirkwall populace. Both Hawke and Andrew knew that Petrice would bring about unnecessary conflict. Though both Champions tried to stop her, Petrice orchestrated the murder of Saemus Dumar, a viscount's son and recent convert to the Qun. When her crime was discovered, a Qunari assassin killed her. After Saemus was murdered, the Arishok of the Qunari group lost patience with the humans of Kirkwall, despite Andrew's attempts to calm him down: they would now submit to the Qun—or die.
The Qunari struck hard and fast, taking the palace in Hightown quickly. But when they barged into the viscount's room, they beheld a horrifying sight. As it turned out later, Quentin was the leader of a cult known as the Mythic Dawn, and second-In-command to Mankar Camoran. With Quentin's death, his followers had decided to accelerate their plans before they were ready. But when the Qunari barged in, the ritual they had designed to solidify their foothold in Thedas went awry. Both the vicount's soul and the souls of the participants were claimed by their master, Mehrunes Dagon, who used the magic released by the ritual to open an Oblivion Gate right in the palace, thereby allowing the Daedra to invade Thedas like they did Tamriel. When Hawke and Andrew caught up with him, the Arishok explained what had happened. But what was most surprising was Andrew's response.
"I thought I was rid of the Mehrunes Dragon and his Mythic Dawn forever." He had said, "But I now know that I must go... Back to Oblivion." The word 'back' filled the hearts of everyone who heard it with dread, more so than the sentence.
Aided by Knight-Commander Meredith, and First Enchanter Orsino, Hawke, Andrew and the Arishok entered the Oblivion Gate to retrieve the Sigil Stone. But when the got to the tower where the Sigil Stone was kept, they came face to face with Mehrunes Dagon himself. Impressed with Hawke and his allies for making it this far, but also enraged for meeting the Champion of Cyrodiil again, whom had thwarted many of his conquests in Cyrodiil, Mehrunes Dagon set them a task before they could get the Sigil Stone:
Within the tower were five of Dagon's best Dremora Xilvilai Berserkers. They had to kill each one and offer the hearts in order to gain access to the Sigilium Sanguis. It was difficult, but Hawke's allies were able to rise to the occasion. But Dagon's last words as the Oblivion Gate closed made everyone nervous.
"Don't think that this is over yet. Dagon does not declare a winner while there's a pawn still on the board."
Afterwards, over drinks in Kirkwall's finest tavern, Hawke finally learned why the Qunari had remained in Kirkwall. Hawke's ally, Isabella, was a notorious raider—and ultimately responsible for the crisis: she had stolen the Tome of Koslun from the Qunari, who remained in Kirkwall to search for it. Isabela returned the book, and Hawke let the Qunari take her prisoner as penance. Finally appeased, the Qunari returned home peacefully, though Isabela would escape later, leaving the book. Upon returning to Par Vollen, the Arishok of the Qunari found both the Qunari equivalent of a court marshal and a commendation ceremony waiting for him.
Hawke saved Kirkwall and earned the grudging respect of the city's templars, mages, and nobility—along with the title that history remembers: The Champion of Kirkwall.
Kirkwall's troubles still weren't over yet, and Mehrunes Dagon's revenge hadn't reached fruition yet.
After Viscount Dumar's death, Knight-Commander Meredith took power and blocked all attempts to appoint a new viscount. Under Meredith's command, the templars tightened their grip on the mages, planning to surpress what Meredith saw as a growing rebellion. Anders, who had spent years fighting for justice and freedom for his fellow mages, saw that the time for negotiation was past. Although Andrew tried to stop him, he destroyed Kirkwall's chantry, killing hundreds—including Grand Cleric Elthina. This single act began a rebellion that spread from Circle to Circle—until all Circles of Magi had risen up in defiance against Chantry rule. There was no forgiveness for what Anders had done, and he asked for death at Hawke's hands. But before Hawke could fulfill the troubled mage's final request, Mehrunes Dagon revealed himself and said that he had greatly approved of Anders' act, saying that "sometimes great death and destruction are needed to bring about positive change." As a final insult, he called Anders his "new seed of the Mythic Dawn". After that, Anders turned himself into the authorities and died by Hawke and Andrew's hands.
Fighting spread swiftly through the city: some mages rebelled openly, many succumbing to possession. Templars turned their swords on those who rebelled—and on those who did not. As First Enchanter Orsino refused to bend to the templars, Knight-Commander Meredith demanded that every mage in Kirkwall be put to the sword. Hawke saved many mages from templar blades, keeping them from succumbing to possession or the temptations of blood magic. In the end, however, Hawke was forced to strike down Orsino, who had betrayed his own values by resorting to blood magic himself. It turned out later that Orsino had found the infamous Mysterium Xarxes, and drowned in the knowledge he had found there.
Andrew, who had joined with the templars in an attempt to dethrone Meredith and steer them away from violence, brought back with him a report that chilled Hawke's blood. He reported that the templars were using a strange form of lyrium, which happened to be red. In the end the battle proved one thing: Knight-Commander Meredith had gone mad. Hawke and Andrew saw the truth of it when Meredith unsheathed her sword—and the red lyrium idol from the Deep Roads was embedded within it. The blade fueled her hatred and paranoia, as it had for months. After a horrific battle, during which Andrew had become bound by chains of energy "flowing" from crystals of red lyrium, the red lyrium of the Knight-Commander's sword consumed her as she died: Meredith became a statue, her face a frozen mask of horror. Little is known of the two Champions since that final battle. However, Hawke and Andrew the Great's story lives on in legend and song—memories of the indelible changes the Two Champions brought to the face of Thedas.
The mage rebellion in Kirkwall was felt throughout Thedas, the news spreading like wildfire. The Templars clamped down in response... but each new restriction only made things worse. Led by Grand Enchanter Fiona, the mages voted for independence. The Circle of Magi would govern itself, without the Chantry and especially without the Templars. The result was cataclysmic. Two circles were destroyed, those within killed to the last mage, before the rest fled into the wilderness. Perhaps the empires of Orlais and Cyrodiil could have intervened in the war before it began, but it was not to be. Led by the Thalmor, the newly re-established Aldmeri Dominion had launched the Great War against Cyrodiil; While Grand Duke Gaspard began a deadly civil war against Empress Celene, vying for the Orlesian throne. The mages were offered safe haven in neighboring Ferelden, but the Templars followed, and so their battle spread across all of Thedas. As head of the Chantry, Divine Justinia V ordered the Templars to stand down. They refused, declaring their own independence. Thus the war began, Templars hunting mages, mages fighting Templars. Their clashes wreaked untold destruction, and all sense of order was falling to pieces. Divine Justinia made one final desperate bid to end the war. She approached the leaders of both sides and convinced them to come to a conclave held on neutral ground. With the Chantry to mediate, mages and templars will talk for the first time since this all began. It is our last—and perhaps our only—chance for peace.
Alas that this was never meant to be...
"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally he became a hero."
-Sister Leliana, on the Lord Inquisitor.
