Dragon Age Editorials
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The story must be initiated in some form. Each origin offers some sort of (1) Call to Adventure, whether it be the betrayal of Arl Howe, the rape of Shianni or the shattering of the Tevinter mirror, your hero is begun down the life-changing path of the warrior. From there, the hero may attempt a (2) Refusal of the Call. The Warden-to-be may try to resist the life of a Grey Warden, but the events of the origin leave him no other option. Willing or not, the hero must accompany Duncan to Ostagar.
From there, the hero receives (3) Supernatural Aid from a guide, mentor or deity. In Dragon Age, this character comes in the form of Duncan, the leader of the Grey Wardens of Ferelden. The mentor usually bestows some sort of gift upon the hero that will aid him or her later in the quest. Although Duncan doesn't necessarily give anything physical to the Warden, he does offer the gift of the Grey Wardens in the Joining, which aids our hero more than any sword or amulet could. More on the Joining in a bit.
From there, the hero must (4) Cross the First Threshold into the dangerous and unknown world. Duncan sends the hero into the Korcari Wilds, an uncharted expanse of wilderness that is now also the epicenter of the darkspawn threat. By entering the wilds and encountering those darkspawn (for some, their first time ever), the hero has left their seemingly quaint life behind and now ventured into that unknown.
And then the last part of The Departure is entering (5) The Belly of Whale, where the hero must undergo a transformation. That's the Joining. Although the hero has ventured into the danger across the first threshold, by choosing to undergo the transformation, the hero is wholly changed to something else. The hero, after this point, can never reclaim the life her or she once had. By drinking of the Joining's cup, our heroes become Grey Wardens, a life devoted the eradication of the darkspawn, forfeiting all claims to title and their former selves and imposing a death sentence upon their own heads.
And then they move on to this piece that takes a closer look at Hawke's background in Dragon Age II:
Hawke eventually rises to become the Champion of Kirkwall, which is surely a title not given without merit. Kirkwall is a major city within the Free Marches so we must take into account what we know of the Marches plus the town's own history, which can give additional insight into Hawke.
Kirkwall began as an Imperium frontier stronghold and became infamous as the (City of Chains) as it rose to be a major player in the Tevinter slave market as well as a location where thousands of thralls were put to work. After about 600 years of Imperium rule as Tevinter's power receded, the city defended itself against many assaults until finally it was defeated from within during a slave uprising. The city then seems to have gone through centuries of changing hands as it was (contested) until the qunari invasion.
Kirkwall was one of many places conquered by the qunari during the Steel and Storm ages, but the city was liberated by Orlesians who installed a governor there, although the move was grossly unpopular with both the other Marchers and those in Kirkwall and the city was abandoned by Orlais. In 7:60 Storm, the first Viscount of Kirkwall takes power.
And lastly, in 9:21 Dragon, nine years before the Fifth Blight, Kirkwall's leader Perrin Threnhold is killed and a new viscount, Marlowe Dumar, takes power. The move was one that appears to have been made with the backing of the templars, as Threnhold attempted to throw the templar order out of Kirkwall, and raises the question of whether Dumar is merely a puppet of the templars in the city.
