Beyond the Horde Mind: Darkspawn Disciples
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The further we travel in Ferelden, however, the more clever the darkspawn become. In fact, in Orzammar, we learn exactly how the darkspawn horde has gotten so large. In the Deep Roads, we see first-hand how the darkspawn propagate, and get our first hard evidence that the darkspawn are more than just mindless killers. They have plans and intentions, however grisly, for the unwitting dwarves, humans, or elves they encounter and abduct. Female Wardens should remember vividly the fate that awaits any civilian woman who is captured by the darkspawn: females of all races are transformed into the Broodmothers, mutating, through a process of dark ritual magic, into monstrous creatures who birth darkspawn by the hundreds to bolster the ranks of the horde.
For centuries, the Grey Wardens themselves have looked upon the darkspawn as mindless creatures, (soulless vessels) as Riordan calls them, who exist merely to carry out the will of the Archdemon, or to act as a failsafe should the Archdemon ever be destroyed.
But are all darkspawn such drones for the Archdemon? What we learn in Dragon Age: Awakening sets Riordan's analysis on its head. In fact, the entire struggle we witness in Awakening is the result of two factions of darkspawn who are possessed of their own minds, emotions and intentions for all intensive purposes, their own souls, separate and distinct from the will of the Archdemon.
