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Chapter 1
I awoke to noise in the background. It sounds like people were shouting and rattling chains. What the hell is going on outside?
Huh? Where am I? I found myself in a tent. This isn't my room.
Holy crap! Was I kidnapped?
It was at that moment that I was assaulted by a headache.
I had the same name. Krishna Khanna. I was a farmer's son in this world, and only 17 years old. Barely a man. I tended the fields with my family. I did, until the Darkspawn started to appear in greater and greater numbers. It was then that all able-bodied men were recruited into the King's Army. Apparently, I had 'volunteered'. It didn't matter to the people in charge. After all, children will die just like adults if the army falls.
Oh my god, I'm in Dragon Age. And we are currently at Ostagar right now. The Battle of Ostagar that leads to the decimation of Fereldan's main army with no survivors that I know of. Other than Loghain and his men, of course. It's at this point where everything begins to fall apart. And I was here.
Oh god, this was going to be the worst.
Hello system, are you there? Status? Anything?
Nothing. No system? Aren't I supposed to get one as a transmigrator? Isn't that how the stories go?
Oh God, I don't know how I'm going to survive in this world. This crazy world with darkspawn, fade demons, controlling chantry, fearful and powerful templars, rogue blood mages, dragons, corrupt nobles, Qunari, Tevinter, slavery, curses, etc. This world is one of the worst to be in.
And I am a nobody. It doesn't get more nobody than a farmer in a feudal fantasy world.
Wait! That's not true. I touched my ears and sighed in relief. At least I'm human. If I was an elf commoner, I might as well just die now.
An elf mage would still have been alright though. Even if elves are disliked in general, mages get respect. You don't mess with someone that can fuck you up just by pointing a stick at you. Kind of like how you don't mess with someone holding a gun.
"Get up Recruits!" A fearsome looking man came through and woke us all up. It was a man in full armor. "Time to get your asses in line!"
Shit, I have to hurry up. I was never one for the army life. Guess that's all changed now.
All of us quickly scrambled out and lined up outside. We were a group of ordinary people that had been forcefully recruited by warriors and nobles to be cannon fodder in the war. There just weren't enough nobles and warriors otherwise to battle the darkspawn. If there were too many people that were part of a certain class, it wouldn't be special anymore.
Numbers are always important in a war. The only problem is, Ferelden is the one outnumbered...it just doesn't know it yet. The only reason I know is because I knew all of the game events from playing the game a lot.
"Alright you lot! Listen up! You can't fight a war without gear! I know most of you here don't have your own armor and weapons, so we are going to provide you with some. You need to go to the armory to obtain some basic gear. It won't be anything fancy or great, but it's all usable! Be grateful that we have such a great king!"
Seriously? Did the king expect us to fight torches and pitchforks? Actually, that might be true. That's kind of sad.
Well, regardless it's good to have confirmation that we aren't going to be sent into war with only the clothes on our backs.
We travelled through camp to the armory. As we did, we passed by numerous people. There were the real warriors, who were up and about, practicing their weapons and other swordplay. Most of them didn't pay us any attention. Some of them stared at us with pity, while other others sneered at us or gave us a look of superiority.
Their looks made me annoyed. I didn't want to die as they expected like cannon fodder. I needed to figure something out, and soon.
Behind them, were the King and General's tents. They were located near the north of the camp, far from ordinary people like us, and surrounded by nobles and true soldiers and warriors.
Another group we passed by was the Chantry. I don't know what other people think, but the chantry is so annoying. Like, stop preaching all the time. They are literally reciting out the chant of light in the middle of camp to everyone. Stop telling us that the Maker will protect us all, and that even if we do die, we will return to the arms of the Maker! Like that literally means that we should fend for ourselves. The Maker, if he exists, doesn't give a crap about us. If he did, this world wouldn't be filled with so much hate and destruction.
Of course, now that I've been thrown into this world, things might end up different. Or maybe this is an Alternate Universe of the Dragon Age series. Well, technically the game encouraged multiple playthroughs and making different decisions to see what would happen. Each of those playthroughs could be considered an alternate universe. I don't know. Everything gets trippy if you think too hard about it.
Across from them were the Mages from the Circle. These mages got involved in the war due to the King's request. They were practicing some cool flashy moves among themselves. At the same time, they seemed to be glaring at the Clerics. Probably because the Clerics had started preaching about the dangers of Magic, and how Mages corrupted the city of the Maker, and all that other stuff.
Who was the idiot that decided to place these groups close together?
Their preaching was also making others uneasy about the presence of Mages in camp. You would think that the church would preach unity and forgiveness. The chantry was even more political than that of the Pope during the peak of Christanity's power. Sometimes, I felt like it wasn't their words that convinced people of the maker, but rather their wealth and the power of the blade behind them.
Speaking of blades, there were templars right next to the mages as well. They were staring at the mages like they were going to go nutso in the middle of camp or something. God, that's so dumb.
The last group we passed by was the smallest, and they had their area that was secluded to the side. A majority of the Grey Wardens were with the main army, but there were a few that lingered around the area. There was no sign of Duncan or the Hero of Ferelden, so that was a good sign too.
The Grey Wardens were respected, and even more so during a blight. They spearheaded the hunt for darkspawn on the surface, and were constantly vigilant in case of another apocalypse, or blight, from starting. And when they felt their death calling, they helped the Dwarves fight against the Darkspawn underground. They were some of the toughest people alive.
Becoming a Grey Warden made you immune to the taint, but it also came with negatives of it's own like a limited lifespan. They also had dreams about the archdemon, and all darkspawn could sense them as well. Grey Wardens also were not allowed to interfere in anything political in order to maintain their neutrality, unless during times of a blight. A Grey Warden does anything he has to to stop the blight, no matter how despicable it may end up being. That is the Warden's Right as well as their responsibility.
That responsibility is too heavy for me. I wouldn't want to be a Warden. I just want to survive right now.
The atmosphere was very busy and morale was high. The army has collided with the Darkspawn on a couple of occasions and there were casualties. People were afraid, but they also assumed that the teryn would get them through everything.
They led us over to an armory where people were handling weapons. The armsmaster came up to us. "Recruits! By the graciousness of the King, you have been offered two different options. The first one is to join our regular army. Your will be outfitted like everyone else, and put through our basic training. This is the safe option.
The other option is to become a scout for the war. You'll receive some basic armor and a sword, and you can go hunt darkspawn. You won't receive any back up from the Army or King, except for rations Anything else is whatever you earn yourself. Information will be rewarded based on it's value. You can bring proof of kills by collecting ears. Each right ear is worth a few coppers. Of course, this isn't recommended, but for our more enterprising individuals, this might provide appropriate...incentive. Anyways, this option isn't for the inexperienced."
People took only a short time to decide. Most people went for the army. I went for the scouting option. Why? Because that was the only option I had to survive. The entire army gets wiped out, with the exception of Logain's men. Not exactly somewhere I'd want to be if I wanted to live.
The 'basic armor' was just a basic old rusty chest plate that protected the abdomen and chest. The sword was just an old rusty sword that would probably eventually fail on me soon. Clearly, the scout option wasn't what they wanted people to choose.
I could understand their decision to have this option though. It wasn't out of kindness. but rather a pragmatic choice. The army didn't need to waste time training us. We would be bait. In addition, scouts could be used as mercenaries to clear out straggling darkspawn around without wasting army resources. Most importantly, it separated people that either don't like following orders, cowards, bad personalities, or overly greedy people that wouldn't function well within the army.
It was a clever move. Dragon Age Origins made King Cailan seem incompetent, but I guess that isn't true. All kings and other nobles were trained in state and war craft. Or maybe it was a move made by Loghain. Seems more likely.
Well, regardless, now that I'm working as a scout/mercenary for the army, I don't need to worry about anything other than my own survival.
Once in the camp at Ostagar, there was no escape. The camp was in the wilds, surrounded by darkspawn on all sides. Regardless of which direction you head in, there was no escape...yet. We will see.
There was only a small group of Mercs in the camp. None of us had any particular experience killing darkspawn either. We slowly made groups on our own. Some of the more...disreputable elements naturally grouped together, while the same happened with stronger prideful ones as well. Unsurprisingly, I was in one of the leftover groups. Still, it could be worse. I could be out there alone.
The group I had wasn't the best or brightest bunch. There were four of us left.
"Hi, my name is Krishna, and I was born and raised on a farm to the south." I introduced myself as courtesy demanded. "Would the three of you like to form a team with me?"
"My name is Norman. I'm a weaver from up north. Got conscripted like the rest of us here." A shifty eyed man introduced himself. "I suppose I have no choice about joining your team. We don't exactly have other options."
"Feel free to go solo." I waved him off generously.
"Haha no thanks…" He stammered. "Rather stick with you than go it alone."
I looked at the woman and motioned to her to start. "Hello sirrahs. My name is Patty and I am from Denerim. I would really appreciate it if you let me on to your team." She gave me a deep bow and then looked at me pleadingly.
"You're an elf."
"Yes." She looked down. I understood. Elves live hard lives in Dragon Age. They are universally made into the lowest caste due to history and long held prejudices.
Elves used to be the dominant race until they were Thedas until they were conquered by Tevinter and enslaved for generations. When they finally got out from slavery and tried to make a home for themselves in the Dales, the chantry led an exalted march, or a crusade, against the elves and destroyed them again when they refused to convert to worshipping the Maker. They lost a majority of their heritage and became wanderers and the lowest class of citizens. They barely had any rights and are considered the scapegoats of humanity.
"Are you sure you want to join us?" I asked kindly. I didn't want to scare her away. City elves tended to be skittish for good reason.
"...Do I really have a choice?" She asked me rhetorically. It was true. None of us really had any choice but each other. Unless, we wanted to go out into the wilds that were teeming with darkspawn all alone.
I nodded my head at her and turned to the last man. "I'm Balfour! I can't wait to bash some darkspawn headzzz!" And yes, he stressed the Z's.
Oh god, we have an idiot with a death wish. I can't let him drag us all down.
So here's the roster:
There was Norman. He was a human weaver that was forced to be here like me. I have no idea why he chose the option to be a scout. He was clearly a coward that flinched at everything.
There was Patty. She was a city elf that was conscripted to be a runner throughout the camp as a servant. She volunteered to be a scout to try and better her life. Unfortunately, the biases toward elves run extremely strong. She was condemned as trying to raise herself above her station and was avoided by everyone else. Well, their loss. At the very least, she still appears more competent than Norman.
Baldor was the last of us. We was a tall strong man, but incredibly dumb. Actually, I don't want him on my team at all. We can't afford idiots in this kind of situation. Norman convinced me otherwise, and told me that he would be able to work well with the other man. Everyone knew that Norman just wanted a meat shield though.
And there was me. Skill-less and fairly useless, except my knowledge of future events and the will to live.
We were fucked.
I sighed. Whatever. As long as there aren't any big mistakes, we would be able to learn and adapt over time. We would start out slow anyways and scout nearby areas to gain experience.
I had the makings of a plan, one that would probably lead to my death. On the other hand, if it succeeded, I had a chance to be great. Better to reach for the top than stay on the bottom of the ladder in this world. War always allows for significant mobility in social status.
Actually, I'd be okay being a peasant if the risk of death wasn't so high for them all the time. They were at the mercy of the world, and it was always best to leave that life if you could. As long as you didn't become bandits for the rest of your life, almost anything was okay.
If I play it safe, death is likely since I'm at the Battle of Ostagar. Even if I happen to survive, I'll still only be a peasant.
If I want to survive and be somebody, I need to take some risks. High risk, high rewards. Need to work hard and play smart.
Anyways, the army has yet to fight a single battle. Scouts were very useful at this stage, even the untrained ones.
"Do any of you have any experience as a scout?" Hopefully, one of us has some real experience.
No one said anything. *Sigh* "We really are the dregs."
Norman hesitated but then spoke up. "I've gone hunting with my father for prey in the woods. I learned how to track animals."
Finally! Something useful! "Great! You're going to be our tracker and teach the rest of us how to do it too."
Patty spoke up. "Elves servants are expected to not be seen or heard. I could probably teach you what I know, but it probably won't be too much help in the wild."
I shrugged. "Better than nothing. When we're out there, you're going to try to teach us stealth." Patty nodded in acceptance.
"I...don't know any of that stuff." Baldor looked at me nervously. "All I can do is bash some heads in."
"Why did you join us then?"
He looked at us sheepishly. "I may have gotten mad and busted some heads at the camp. I'm not welcome there anymore."
I sighed. "Whatever. You seem to be the only one here that is versed in any sort of combat. If things go bad, you're going to be on the frontlines fighting them."
Balfour nodded. "That's fine. I don't have the smarts, but when it comes to fighting, I'll be your man."
I nodded. This was a subpar start that all of us had to make work. Somehow, we would handle it. Or die. "We've been assigned this area. We should figure out the terrain as fast as we can. Last thing we want is to be caught in an ambush against the darkspawn."
We headed out slowly into the woods, creeping forward one step at a time. Patty is teaching us how to walk silently to the best of her abilities, but none of us are particularly good at this. Norman was keeping track of the trails around us and pointing them out. I was drawing out a crude map of the area. It wasn't that great, but it could provide the military a bit more information for when they sent out the experienced scouts to make maps of the area.
I would like to say that we were the wild card in the situation, but honestly, we were the 'twos' of the deck. Generally the worst, but occasionally useful.
Surprisingly, Norman was able to come through for us. It didn't take us long to come across one of the darkspawn. It was a hurlock grunt. Alone. Must have been delegated to scout for people and draw darkspawn to their location.
I could feel my heart racing. I've never been in any combat situations before. Never had a major physical fight. I was a thinker, not a fighter. I shouldn't be leading this crew of amateurs into battle. I should have stuck to the army. What was I doing here? This was a horrible idea. We were all going to die, or even worse, be eaten alive-
Stop. Just breathe.
I smothered all of the negative thoughts. It was too late to go back.
I signalled to Balfour and Patty. Patty was going to cause a distraction to lure it over, and Balfour was going to finish it off. Patty crept into position and tossed a stone. The hurlock was alerted right away and went to check it out. Huh, this went better than normal. I thought darkspawn had an amazing sense of smell. Guess it was too focused on the sound. When he passed our position, Balfour pounced and tackled the Hurlock.
Seriously? What the hell is that giant club for, if you're just going to wrestle it? God damn it! I have to silence it before it makes a sound and attracts the horde on over!
I quickly drew my sword and stepped on over and slashed the hurlock's throat. No hesitation.
I was kind of surprised at myself. I didn't think I'd be able to do the deed so easily. I guess when it's my life on the line, I'm more than willing to do anything to survive. I'm not sure I like that about myself.
Balfour continued to hold it down while it futilely struggled and its life drained away. I gave it a few more stabs to speed up the process. I felt like some sort of sicko.
I didn't like what I was becoming, but I didn't have any choice. Anyone can be forced to kill given the motivation.
It was at that moment that I felt something. I don't know how to describe it. It's like something touched my mind and it expanded. I wonder if this is what doing drugs was like.
Then it went away. But something had changed. I just didn't know what.
Forget it. We needed to hurry. If there was one, there were probably more darkspawn nearby. We needed to neutralize them ASAP.
I looked around and I felt a tug on my mind-that way.
Strange...why am I so sure about this?
I motioned Norman the direction to look and he was able to come back fairly quickly. He signaled that there were two hurlocks this time.
Damn. I hesitated. I wasn't sure that we would be able to take them out. A lone darkspawn is one thing-a group is another.
I mean, it was still only 2 of them. I decided we should go for it. If we couldn't handle two of the weaker darkspawn, we wouldn't survive long anyways during a blight on the front lines.
I motioned to the group to quickly strip down the killed darkspawn's belongings. If something was usable, we would take it for ourselves, otherwise we would turn it in to camp for rewards. They would be able to repurpose it or break it down for parts.
There was a second sword and some daggers. Each of us got a dagger, except Balfour who got the sword. We left Norman take the armor, as he was our scout, and well, a super coward. It would at least buy him some time, even though it would weigh him down a little. It wasn't too big of a deal since it was leather armor.
It was time to take another group down. Balfour would take a guy down by himself, while the three of us would take on the other hurlock. We would probably take some hits though. As long as we didn't get infected with taint, it would be fine.
We crept over towards them, but this time we didn't have any luck. These two were definitely a lot more alert than the other one and discovered us right away.
"Balfour! If you can't take it out, just keep it occupied until the three of us kill this one!" I gave him directions quickly and headed for the darkspawn that was further away.
While Balfour's opponent was a warrior, ours was an archer. The only way to take down this archer was to rush in, since none of us knew how to use a bow or had magic. And all Mages were kept on a lease with the main army.
The hurlock was aiming right at me since I was leading our charge over. Since when did I get so brave? I had no idea. He took aim and fired. Somehow, instinctively, I knew it was aimed at my head and I was barely able to dodge it by moving out of the way slightly. I could see the shock in its eyes, and I'm sure my own face mirrored it.
I didn't have any more time to think about it. I was just happy and relieved to be alive. The Hurlock Archer attempted to run away while stringing another arrow, but it just wasn't working. The hurlock tossed it's bow aside and pulled out it's knives and prepared for battle up close. Too bad for it, it was a little too late. I got the first cut, and the other two followed my lead. We had it surrounded and a few more well placed stabs and cuts took it down.
Once again, I got that feeling of euphoria and expansion, before it disappeared.
No time to think about it right now. We needed to help Balfour. He was having a harder time. He wasn't a trained warrior, just a strong man with a club and sword.
We rushed over while Balfour was holding him back just barely. When the Hurlock lunged forward to attack him, I timed my own lunge at the Hurlock and was able to stab him in the base of his neck from behind. It died instantly.
Again, I got that feeling of expansion before it disappeared again. It didn't seem to be doing anything bad, so I decided to ignore it from now on. Anyways, now was not the time. We were in the field.
"Be quick! Take the ears and another of value! Our fight is sure to draw other darkspawn to the area!" I don't know why, but I was very sure of this.
The one advantage that our group had was that we were natural scavengers. We stripped down both corpses within a minute for anything useful or valuable.
"Let's go back to camp to report and pawn off anything we don't need. We should report our sightings of darkspawn in the area. They'll send a war party or two to clear out the area." I wanted to keep going, but three fights were the max for our group right now. We were blooded for the first time today and I could tell that the others were mentally exhausted.
The others? I frowned at that thought. Why wasn't I exhausted too? If anything, it should be worse for me, since I just transmigrated here and have never fought before.
There isn't any mental exhaustion, nor do I feel the pain of killing another living creature. Maybe I'm a natural psychopath? The only other thing I can think of is that feeling of my mind expanding and euphoria whenever I kill one of the darkspawn. Maybe it is causing my mental state to recover somehow.
Regardless, I'm not doing as bad as these guys.
We hurried back to the camp at Ostagar and examined our loot. Obviously, there was nothing amazing, but we did salvage some more leather armor, a bow, some more knives, and an axe. It was all poor quality, but it was better than nothing.
After splitting the loot, I ended up with the bow. No one knew how to use one, and I already had enough knives for the moment. Balfour got the axe and the leather armor based off of need, and patty got the other leather armor and the rest of the knives. Norman didn't get anything this time because he didn't fight as much as the rest of us.
It was time to see what our contributions would get us. Suffice it to say, our scouting liaison was shocked. "I saw that the four of you had made a group. Didn't think you all would survive out there though. Good for ya. Now report your findings."
"Darkspawn to the north. We ought some of their scouts, and I'm pretty sure there are many more to follow soon."
I handed him my amateur map, and his face twitched. "Keep it. We already had scouts map out the area." He pulled out a heavily detailed map. Show off. "Show me approximately where you encountered the darkspawn." I pointed to a few places that were relatively near camp. "Son of a-! Alright. It seems those war parties are slacking off if those creatures were able to get that close. I'll send the report higher ups, and the Ash Warriors will be sent through to eliminate everything."
"Thank god." I gave a breath of relief. "We got some darkspawn ear and picked up some odds and end off their corpses. Anything that the camp might want?"
"Show me what you got." I handed over the ears and most of the other scraps and belongings that these guys had. "Not much of value here to be honest. I see here that your group killed three darkspawn. Good for you. First time is always the worst. If you can overcome the fear, it's like killing anything else except you need to be careful about getting the taint." Thanks captain obvious.
"How much then?"
"The total is about 36 coppers, but I'll round it out to an even 40 coppers. No bargaining. All transactions here are fair. The ears are useless except to know there are a couple less darkspawn out there and motivate you guys to kill more of them. And the scraps are useless unless people put a lot of work and effort into repurposing them, which costs more than it's worth. Honestly, these rules are heavily skewed in your favor to make you all work harder."
So I earned...10 copper for risking my life. "Great…"
He looked at me awkwardly. "I know it isn't much, but you're still earning something. No one in the army earns anything unless they come out of it alive at the end of everything."
I felt a little better. "That's true."
"I'm going to let you in on a little secret." He came up to me and started whispering. "If your contribution is great enough, you can get weapons, armor, money-anything! Even a different posting…" He trailed off looking at me intently. I got the message. His voice returned to normal. "Anyways! I have lots of work to do! Off with you now!"
It was an interesting piece of information he gave me. I don't think it was particularly secret though. He probably tells all of the scouts who survive their first outing. Try to make us desire to increase our contributions so that we help them out more. Still, it was very welcome news.
Everything had come together and I had a plan. A very bold and dangerous plan. I was going to fight and kill darkspawn enough to receive a post at the Tower of Ishal. From there, I would join the Warden's team and join him or her on their adventures. Through them, I plan to amass enough influence and power and live a good life.