The Grey Wardens hold a lonely vigil, enduring lives of hardship and sacrifice to protect the world from an evil that can never truly be conquered. Few would volunteer for this: the suffering, isolation, and promise of a violent death. But the path of a Warden is also one of valor, and those who give themselves to the cause are rewarded with the knowledge that they have become something more than they were.
In Orzammar, 9:31 Dragon:
King Harrowmont found himself in a protracted battle against Bhelen's rebellion that left him unable to gain the stability he needed. The deshyrs objected to many of his measures in the Assembly, and only his efforts to increase the dwarves' isolation from the surface met with any success. When Natia Brosca arrived with her escort of thirty Ferelden soldiers, it was only her word that the Fereldens would be under her direct command that let them into the city; she was warned that any more would not be allowed inside the gates, and would only be allowed to provide limited aid, in the form of equipment and medicine. The replacements would only be allowed to enter the City of Stone after their fellows left.
The Assembly posthumously declared Duran a Paragon after months of deliberation. He was buried in the earth beneath Orzammar next to his father-his Aeducan name restored. A new statue was erected in the Commons and a new house founded in his honor. After a law excluding the casteless from common areas of the city was passed, a rebellion saw the slums reduced practically to rubble, and the remaining casteless dwarves joined House Duran, especially after it came out that Warden-Constable Brosca had been in a relationship with the Hero of Ferelden. It became one of the largest in the city. Although outrage was widespread, the Assembly remained united behind King Harrowmont.
Brosca's influence grew as Harrowmont's waned. She took her sister and nephew under her wing after an assassination attempt had them flee from the palace, and the Legion of the Dead was integrated into the ranks of the new mixed-race army. She led forces to clear the Deep Roads surrounding Orzammar regularly, and when Wardens came for their Calling they were sent deeper than they had been in years. Within months, two of the small thaigs near Orzammar had been mostly reclaimed, and when Kal'Hirol was rediscovered, the large force led by House Helmi was able to completely clear the Deep Roads between the two great thaigs.
Halfway through the year, an expedition led by the scholar Darion Olmech goes into the Deep Roads to find Amgarrak Thaig and the long-lost secrets of the research on golem construction that took place there. They were never heard from again. Some months later, Jerrik Dace, the brother of one of the members of the expedition, petitioned Brosca for people to go with him to find the research party, funded by House Tethras. Brosca, not wanting to offend either House Dace or House Tethras—both of whom are now supporting House Duran, with her nephew Endrin Aeducan as their future King—agreed. However, she knew that if the Anvil of the Void was recreated, casteless would eventually be press-ganged into service as golems, and she didn't want that. She sabotaged the mission and they barely escaped with their lives back to Orzammar.
In time, King Harrowmont's health began to fail. Some claimed it was poison, while others said it was a flagging spirit. Either way, after a protracted illness, the king finally passed away. The wrangling in the Assembly for a successor began almost immediately. This time, they asked Brosca and the Wardens not to intervene: dwarven politics were not the playground of the Wardens, and the casteless had no place in the Assembly, whatever her place in the Warden hierarchy.
It was at this point that Brosca received word of Morrigan's whereabouts, and found out that she could have saved Duran from death.