Hello, this is my first article, and I decided to start, so to speak, with heavy artillery. Today I would like to talk about the great, masterpiece and unforgettable Dragon Age: Origins.

I want to warn you in advance that my text will mainly be about the scenario component of the game, because I am casual and, unfortunately, could not appreciate the beauty of the local combat.

So, at first I wanted to write something like a review with an analysis of the mechanics in general terms about the plot and so on, but then I realized that I was not competent enough for this, since I did not dive into the full tactical depth of the gameplay, and I cannot speak about the plot in general terms, but I want to discuss it in detail. So I decided to just write my thoughts on the plot of the game and just discuss what grabbed me about it.

And yes, of course there will be SPOILERS.

The beginning of the story:

Well, at the beginning one of the six prologues awaits us (though I only completed the game twice and both as a nobleman, and yes, I know that half of the fans could already burn me at the stake for this), then there is a rather long outset in which the situation is briefly explained to us. A local tough warrior and, according to first impressions, our future mentor Duncan is like: “We have an army of darkness headed by a dragon moving here, and only the gray guards can stop it, I’m a gray guard, go join our order” and the main character is like: “Well, what?”. And it also turns out that with joining the ranks of the guards, we arrived just in time for a large-scale mess between the army of King Cailan, along with the gray guards and the creatures of darkness. However, by the will of the plot, we do not participate in the rubilov itself. But it’s for the best, because the king’s chief commander Loghain (uhh, we’ll talk about him later) betrays the king and orders reinforcements to leave instead of joining the battle. Because of which the entire army, along with the king and Duncan, are abruptly killed. Speaking of Duncan. When I played through the game for the first time, I just laughed at this situation, because he was like, “I’m a really cool and experienced mentor, I’ll make you a worthy gray guard” – and he dies, damn it, at the very beginning of the plot. Considering how pretentious and cool it was presented to us, I just didn’t expect it to go away so quickly, it just tore me up the first time.

However, our character, as a result of the battle with the creatures of darkness, turns out to be incapable of combat. And so our short but vivid story would have ended on the ruins of Ostagar, if we had not been saved by two witches: Flemeth and Morrigan, far from the last figures in the entire series of these games. So, they saved us, and at the same time our recent acquaintance, and also the last surviving gray guard from Ostagar, not counting us, Alistair, who also turns out to be the illegitimate son of the former king, and in fact Kaylan’s half-brother and direct heir to the throne.

In short, our situation is not simple, almost all the Gray Guardians in the country have died, and Loghain, who also turns out to be the father of Kaylan’s widow, becomes regent under her and declares us enemies of the state. But here the swamp witch comes to the rescue, she will save lives, and she will give agreements that oblige local factions to help the guards, and she will send her daughter with us for company. In general, like Baba Yaga, only cooler (and yes, she does all this for a reason, but for her own purpose, but that’s not important now).

Now we must visit the gnomes, elves, magicians, as well as the lord of people who does not support Loghain, and enlist their support in order to stop the regent, who is putting a spoke in our wheels, and save the world from pestilence. And only here, after five hours of gameplay, the main game begins.

Alistair takes us to the city of Radcliffe to a familiar lord (his name is Eamon), who should help us. And in his city the undead are storming the residents. We help the residents fight back and go with the guards to the castle to find out what the hell is going on here.

During the story quests, we learn the following story: the baron’s son has discovered magical powers, and in order not to send him to imprisonment in the tower (and the magicians here live in a separate tower under the strict supervision of the church “for blasphemy is your magic”, the only exceptions are apostate magicians who are hiding from the church and are wanted), his wife hires an apostate magician who must teach the boy to master his abilities. However, things didn’t go according to plan. The boy contacted the demon so that he would heal his dying father (poisoned by Loghain, since the lord did not support him), but UNEXPECTEDLY the demon possessed the boy and began to do all sorts of game and sodomy.

And then the same magician who taught the boy comes out and says that he can expel the demon, but this requires blood magic (this is magic that allows you to interact with demons, and to use it, oddly enough, you need blood), or rather, such a powerful ritual requires a human sacrifice, who volunteers to act as the boy’s mother, who indirectly initiated all these events.

In fact, we have a choice: to kill the mother, who so wanted to keep her son with her that she unwittingly provoked a total snow animal throughout the city; or kill the guy who just wanted to save his father. It seems to me that questions are unnecessary here.

After the ritual, accompanied by a battle with the boss, the guy is alive, whole, eagle, but his mother is dead.

However, Eamon is still in a coma due to that same poisoning. To resurrect him, Andraste’s tears are needed (she is the local Jesus, but not a child of God, but his chosen one, who has a very important role in the lore of the universe).

Through story missions, including: the search for one priest-scribe, a conflict with an ancient cult, a boss battle and a moral choice. We get an artifact (or another option with desecration of the urn, but I played as a good guy, so I can’t say anything about it).

So, with the help of the ashes we heal Eamon, we advise sending the boy to study in the circle of magicians so that professionals can deal with it, and at the same time we organize a plan to overthrow Loghain, which can be briefly described as follows:

Step 1 – organize a meeting of the lands with all influential people in the country;

Step 2 – we say and prove that Loghain is shit;

Step 3 – we say and prove that we are not shit, but D’artagnan;

Step 4 – we overthrow Loghain for nothing, and take the situation in the country into our own hands;

Step 5 – save the world;

But we’re not in a hurry, we haven’t gathered all our allies yet, so we’ll move on to the factions.

We arrive in the city of gnomes (who in this world are still hermits and live only in their mines, and if someone goes up, then he is an outcast in society).

There is a struggle for power between Prince Belen and Lord Harrowmont (the first direct heir to the throne, but the king, before his death, decided to give the throne to his friend, as he decided that his son was not suitable for this role, but this is not certain).

Belen – young, good warrior, hot-tempered, adherent of old rules and traditions, really wants the crown. Not particularly inclined towards active interaction with the surface, but very popular among people. He believes that his competitor for the crown is a liar and that his father saw his son as king.

Harrowmont is old, an experienced diplomat, balanced and calculating, believes that the dwarves need to develop cooperation with the outside world. Convinced that the prince killed his brother to get rid of a contender for the title. The townspeople don’t particularly like his affinity for the ground creatures.

In short, we have two shady guys here, each of whom is lying to the other, and is trying in every possible way to win over the GG, since our approval can become a hefty bonus to the points of this or that team in this “match”.

To be honest, who knows which of them is right, since there are a lot of blank spots in history, but I am for a diplomatic approach to solving problems, so I chose Harrowmont, fighting on his behalf at a local tournament.

But, as it turned out, our support is not enough. For coronation, you need the approval of the “perfect” (this title is given to one or another dwarf for some important action for the entire people. "Hero of the country" relatively speaking).

So, the last of these perfect ones, Branka, went to the deep paths a couple of years ago, and has not returned since then.

The deep paths are a network of dungeons in which the creatures of darkness live until the plague arrives (it happens once 5000 years, I don’t remember exactly, so if I’m wrong with the numbers, don’t judge too harshly). On these very paths there is a Legion of the Dead (this is a guild of gnomes that abandons all their past life, and soaks the rest in these tunnels of the creatures of darkness). Let’s get back to the plot.

So, in order to win the elections, we go into the underground labyrinth to find Branca. Her husband Ogren is going with us – one of the best, coolest and funniest companions in the game, if not the best.

During our journey we find out the following:

– the creatures of darkness turn https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/kong-casino/ prisoners into their own kind in a very creepy way;

– somewhere here there is an anvil of emptiness, in which the Perfect Caridin riveted golems, it was this that Branka was looking for in order to start making golems again;

After going through a bunch of enemies, a meeting with the legion of death, as well as an extremely vile and unpleasant boss, we still find Branka, who has finally gone crazy. When she and her squad found the anvil, multiple traps blocked their entrance, and she sent her people to die in these traps in an attempt to neutralize them, but over all these years she never succeeded.

After a short dialogue she runs away from us. And we, by solving the puzzle, pass through the traps and enter the anvil. There we meet Karidin, he became a golem. He tells us that it turns out that golems were made from gnomes and that he wants to destroy the anvil so that no one else gets hurt because of it. But then Branka appears and demands that we give the anvil to her, since she wants to rivet golems on it. I refuse and the boss battle begins. Having defeated her, we negotiate with Karidin so that he will support our candidate for the throne, and in exchange we will destroy the anvil. He forges a crown and gives it to us as support. We fulfill our promise and destroy the anvil, thereby giving the Perfect One death and peace, and also forever preventing the creation of new golems.

Returning to the city, we present to the council the crown made by the Perfect and crown Harrowmont to everyone’s approval. Only Belen is not happy and he rushes at us with a sword, but death quickly calms him down.

Well, another faction has joined us. And now, already with Ogren in the party, we go after the remaining two.

And yes, in this quest I had an embarrassment: You see, there is such a character in the team as Zevran, or as I call him “the Joker’s trap”. In short, he is gay, and during the last playthrough I did not maintain the best relationship with him, which is why in the end he betrayed me and had to be killed. So this time I decided to take my friendship with him to the max. And while going through the story in Orzammar, in the context of the dialogue, I suddenly realized that all the time, choosing positive answers during conversations with him, I started a love line with him. Ultimately, in order to keep my character’s orientation traditional, I had to switch to completing a mage quest halfway through this quest in order to activate a love line with Morrigan there. And I completed the plot of Orrzamare only after the end of the affair with Morrigan.

The retreat is over, let’s continue.

And here, to be honest, I have nothing special to say. For some reason I have almost no memories from this particular story. But in general, the gist is this: we go to the tower of magicians, where they live under the supervision of the church, and specifically the templars (officially they are something like the police in the country, but in fact they are the personal army of the church). There is an invasion of demons, which was organized by blood mages. At the end there is a choice to enter into an alliance with either ordinary magicians or blood mages. We are good, so we choose the first and kill the second. That’s all, it seems, for this faction (and yes, this tower has a rather interesting and original passage of various riddles and traps along the way, but we’re talking about the plot here).

We arrive at the camp of the Dalish elves in the Brecilian forest (here, according to the lore, elves are not very popular, so those of them who arrive in the cities live either in the local ghetto, or are laborers and servants for local nobles. Well, the rest, who did not want such a not very pleasant life, became nomads, and we actually came to them).

In short, they say they can’t help – and they have enough problems of their own. Well, how could it be otherwise?. It turns out that they are being stormed by werewolves, and they are led by a certain Mad Fang. The head of this clan, Zatrian, asks us to look into this.

Through several quests, during which we have to kill a bunch of werewolves, as well as chat with a local ent and go through a magical barrier, we find out: some werewolves are intelligent, and in general it’s not that simple.

Ultimately, we meet with a certain Mistress of the Forest, she is the leader of intelligent werewolves. And she explains to us that many centuries ago local people killed Zatrian’s son and raped his daughter, who survived, but when she learned that she was pregnant, she committed suicide. Zatrian had a blast and, using blood magic, he summoned the spirit of the forest, infused it into the wolf, and sent a curse on this land, turning people into werewolves. And it is because of this bloody magic that he lives so long. However, those people have long since died, and the current werewolves are just new settlers.

The owner (she is that very spirit, and actually the Mad Fang) was able to curb the bestial nature of the wolf in which she was imprisoned, and helped several other werewolves do this. She says to bring Zatrian to her so that he and she can lift the curse, but they will both die in the process.

Well, the lady’s word is law. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go far, the elf followed us all this time. He resists with all his might and does not want to lift the curse. But a corrective moralizing conversation coupled with good blows do their job, and he agrees.

They perform a ritual, the result of which is as follows:

— Zatrian and the Lady of the Forest are dead;

— the werewolves became human again and will try to live a new life;

— Zatrian’s assistant took over the leadership of the clan;

– the elves are joining our army, as promised.

Well, all the allies are assembled, all that remains is to deal with Loghain.

So, we come to the capital. We have several tasks here, as a result of which we rescue Loghain’s daughter (Anora, the king’s widow) from captivity (after this, by the way, there is a pretty cool quest with a prison escape), and also get acquainted with one of the few surviving gray guards in the country, Reordan. And here we are also killing Loghain’s closest accomplice Lrd Howe, who in my backstory killed my family, in short, taking revenge. It’s also worth completing most of the additional steps by this time. tasks, thanks to many of them we will receive support at the land meeting.

So let’s implement our plan:

Step 1 – organize a meeting of the lands with all influential people in the country;

Step 2 – we say and prove that Loghain is shit;

Step 3 – we say and prove that we are not shit, but D’artagnan;

Step 4 – we overthrow Loghain for nothing, and take the situation in the country into our own hands;

Step 5 – save the world;

I, with the support of Anora and the majority of people on the council, defeat Loghain in the debate, announcing all the crazy things he did. After which we have a duel with him.

And here, I think, it’s worth talking about Loghain. The fact is that they are trying to present him to us as an ambiguous villain, they say that he was an excellent commander and all that. However, in the game itself, he never did anything good, but only put a spoke in our wheels and tried to kill us in every possible way, and he even locked his own daughter in a castle so that she wouldn’t bother him. And then we are given a choice: kill him or leave him alive. But the funny thing is that at this moment we have absolutely no reason to keep him alive, since with his actions he harmed not only us, but the entire Ferelden, just not to enter into an alliance with Orlais (a neighboring country). I don’t know, maybe if he survives he’ll tell his motivation in detail, but I somehow doubt it. The only argument in his defense I heard was only in the Inquisition in a conversation with one of the characters, and it was a weak argument (like he abandoned the king because the attack plan was crap and they would have lost), but revealing the motivation of the main villain in the third game of the series is such a move.

Let’s get back to the story, summary:

-he placed Alistair and Anora on the throne, whom he persuaded to get married;

-all charges against us have been dropped;

-everyone is convinced that we are D’Artagnan.

It’s time to save the world!

The night before the fight

All armies have been assembled, all enemies have been defeated, except one – the Archdemon. The last night before the battle, the last chance to rest and gain strength. And on this night several important things happen.

Reordan tells us that the whole peculiarity of the Gray Guardians is that by drinking the blood of the creatures of darkness (this is the initiation ceremony), we partially become one of them ourselves (well, according to DNA). The Archdemon, having died, will be reborn in the nearest spawn of darkness, but if the closest spawn is the Gray Guardian, then it will move into it and die, but the guard will also die. This is the purpose of guards.

As soon as we return to our bedroom we meet Morrigan.

Digression: I completed her personal quest and helped her find out that her mother prolongs her life by moving into her daughters, and so that the same learning would not befall her, we killed her mother (and yes, when I played the game for the first time, I thought “oh, what will this old woman do to me, I’ll go to hell,” hmm, who knew that she would turn into a DRAGON, in short, only by rebooting and the help of her comrades I was able to restore my dignity, beaten by the old woman). Well, I completed her quest, gave her a couple of personal gifts, and we began a love affair. The retreat is over.

And in our room, Morrigan tells us that he knows a way for us to kill the Archdemon and stay alive. Special ritual – you need to impregnate her child. And when the Archdemon dies, he will move into the child, and his soul will be destroyed, but the child will survive and will not be affected by the demonic force in any way, and everything will be fine with him (she assumes that this is precisely why Flemeth sent her with us). In short, an option in which everyone is happy. Well, since we already have love with her, this does not cause any problems.

Final batch

So it begins!

We are moving to Radcliffe along with the entire army in order to meet the army of pestilence there. But the bastards turn out to be smart, and directed their main forces to poorly protected Denerim. So we return back to the capital to give the final battle to the Archdemon and his creatures.

Arriving at the scene, we break through the burning city, mowing down everything in our path.

As a result, we make our way to Fort Drakkon, on the top of which the final battle with the Archdemon takes place.

Using the help of your army, partners, local ballistas, as well as your own skill and courage we defeat the Archdemon.

The world is saved, we are alive, everyone rejoices in victory. We are in the palace discussing plans for the near future with our friends. Morrigan disappeared (she said she would disappear after the battle). We tell King Alistair that we will continue to serve the country and the crown, and we also promise to find Morrigan.

The Hero of Ferelden leaves the palace to a cheering crowd.

What follows are several slides with the consequences of our decisions, big and small, for the world.

This game is amazing! I completed it for the second time, and it was an indescribable experience! The plot of this game made me immerse myself in this world, feel all the emotional experiences of the local characters, and think about the moral dilemmas presented here. I completed this game with all the DLC in 65 hours, and I don’t regret it one bit. Although I don’t like the local combat system, I think this only enhances the merits of the local story, since it made me spend all this time in this one, I’m not afraid of this word Legendary game.

Thanks for reading all of this. To be honest, I don’t even know why I wrote all this, I probably just wanted to share my experience and emotions with someone, and discuss it with those who love this game as much as I do.

And yes, if you haven’t played this game but still read this, forget it. Everything I wrote will not convey to you even a small part of the emotions that this game gives. Even all these spoilers won’t ruin this experience for you, believe me, it’s worth it.

Thank you for your attention, and thank you Dragon age:Origins for this unforgettable experience.

Great and unforgettable!

I played the game from March 2020 to September 2020, as I took a break of several months because I was not in the mood to play. I started writing this article in December 2020, and I’m finishing it in March 2021, so I could have simply forgotten a lot of important things. Don’t judge strictly.

Best comments

To be honest, I don’t even know why I wrote all this, I probably just wanted to share my experience and emotions with someone, and discuss it with those who love this game as much as I do.

It would be worth starting with this. And in general, pay more attention to your impressions of the game in order to start a discussion. Those who have not played yet are unlikely to read a walkthrough or retelling of the plot with spoilers, but those who have already completed it already know it. Well written (especially for a first blog), but it’s not entirely clear for whom.

I haven’t played it myself yet. Firstly, I didn’t get around to it, and secondly, the usual fantasy somehow doesn’t really suit me. As far as I understand, DA is just a variation on the theme of the worlds of “might and magic” with an emphasis on dark fantasy, without any special features. Or does it have some of its own features that are not found in other settings??

1 — “After the ritual, accompanied by a battle with the boss, the guy is alive, whole, eagle, but his mother is dead.»
You don’t have to kill your mother: you stomp into the tower of magicians, you get yourself the best girl (grandmother) in the game Winn, you save the archmage, you get a pat on the shoulder and the archmage for the ritual, which quite calmly throws you in to fight the demon without any sacrifices. By the way, I personally was most drawn to the Tower – there is a quest with running through demonic dreams and four guises.
2 – “And then the same magician who taught the boy comes out and says that he can expel the demon, but this requires blood magic.”. The renegade mage is our brother from the branch with magicians, if you start as a wizard, then it will be your close friend, I had such a blast from it (the first time I played as an elf from the forest, and I was like, well, man and man, and the second time I played as a sorceress and I was like, THIS IS A GREAT TURN!)
3 – when you play as a gnome, you become a lord, but you are betrayed))
4 – now I’m going to go through the daga again))

Well, it’s more of a typical dark fantasy, just very well done.

And regarding your comment

So I decided to just write my thoughts on the plot of the game and just discuss what grabbed me about it.

I wrote this at the very beginning.

But then you said everything correctly.

Nevermind! I never thought that anyone else would come here.

You don’t have to kill your mother: you stomp into the tower of magicians, you get yourself the best girl (grandmother) in the game Winn, you save the archmage, you get a pat on the shoulder and the archmage for the ritual, which quite calmly throws you in to fight the demon without any sacrifices. By the way, I personally was most drawn to the Tower – there is a quest with running through demonic dreams and four guises.

I only finished the game twice and was always the first to go to Redcliffe. The quest in the tower is really cool, but at the time of writing, for some reason I remember it the least. But for some reason I was never interested in Winn. Of all my partners, she attracted me the least.

The renegade mage is our brother from the branch with magicians, if you start as a wizard, then it will be your close friend, I had such a blast from it (the first time I played as an elf from the forest, and I was like, well, man and man, and the second time I played as a sorceress and I was like, THIS IS A GREAT TURN!)

Cool. And Hou, by the way, in other prologues also teases us or is it just for the nobleman?