![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Dragon Age: Origins #1 - Dwarven Politics, With Many Stabbings
At once point or another, I have played all of the origin stories in Dragon Age: Origins, but the two dwarf stories remain my favourites. (I think I slightly prefer the noble to the commoner, but they're both wonderful.) While I do have plans for another Brosca in the future, this time around I made another Aeducan. My favourite DA protagonist ever - maybe my favourite RPG character I've ever made - was my first Aeducan Warden, so this guy has a lot to live up to.
I don't see much point in making a new character for a given origin story and doing all the same things, so I made sure that Wulfric Aeducan would be different from Kaelle Aeducan from the start. He's a rogue archer where she was a sword-and-board warrior, and he's a charming bastard with a keen interest in political power where she was blunt and guileless and wanted to ignore the whole princess thing as much as possible. One of the reasons I love this origin so much is that it does a great job of tossing you in the deep end of dwarven politics, which is a very deep end indeed. Everyone is trying to manipulate you, and you can resist or manipulate them right back, although at least for the moment you're bound to lose.
Last time, my character did nothing wrong and was framed by Bhelen anyway, so I decided to play it the other way this time and play a character who was already thinking about shanking Trian. Helpfully, Trian is a complete dick and gives you plenty of reasons to dislike him. (I had somehow managed to forget that over the course of eight years, mainly because his youngest sibling is so much worse due to being more effective at it.) Appropriately, Trian died when shot in the back by his younger brother,. who was then shot in the back metaphorically by his younger brother.
On the whole, I think I prefer the version where your character is innocent, if only because it's even more devastating to lose everything when you've done nothing to deserve it. Still, there's something to be said for making a character who plays the game and loses to Bhelen, and I imagine it will play out in interesting ways once Wulfric finally gets back to Orzammar.
The moment when Aeducan is locked in the Deep Roads with only a sword (not that much help if you're an archer) is one of my favourites in all of Dragon Age. Even though all the origins suffer, Aeducan is the only one who loses everything - not to death, like Cousland does, or to separation like Mahariel, but to banishment. Down in the Deep Roads you really have got nothing until you fight your way to Duncan's side. The actual initiation and Joining feel like a bit of an afterthought after that trial by fire.
And then Duncan made Wulfric walk all the way to Ostagar without shoes. Mean!
I don't see much point in making a new character for a given origin story and doing all the same things, so I made sure that Wulfric Aeducan would be different from Kaelle Aeducan from the start. He's a rogue archer where she was a sword-and-board warrior, and he's a charming bastard with a keen interest in political power where she was blunt and guileless and wanted to ignore the whole princess thing as much as possible. One of the reasons I love this origin so much is that it does a great job of tossing you in the deep end of dwarven politics, which is a very deep end indeed. Everyone is trying to manipulate you, and you can resist or manipulate them right back, although at least for the moment you're bound to lose.
Last time, my character did nothing wrong and was framed by Bhelen anyway, so I decided to play it the other way this time and play a character who was already thinking about shanking Trian. Helpfully, Trian is a complete dick and gives you plenty of reasons to dislike him. (I had somehow managed to forget that over the course of eight years, mainly because his youngest sibling is so much worse due to being more effective at it.) Appropriately, Trian died when shot in the back by his younger brother,. who was then shot in the back metaphorically by his younger brother.
On the whole, I think I prefer the version where your character is innocent, if only because it's even more devastating to lose everything when you've done nothing to deserve it. Still, there's something to be said for making a character who plays the game and loses to Bhelen, and I imagine it will play out in interesting ways once Wulfric finally gets back to Orzammar.
The moment when Aeducan is locked in the Deep Roads with only a sword (not that much help if you're an archer) is one of my favourites in all of Dragon Age. Even though all the origins suffer, Aeducan is the only one who loses everything - not to death, like Cousland does, or to separation like Mahariel, but to banishment. Down in the Deep Roads you really have got nothing until you fight your way to Duncan's side. The actual initiation and Joining feel like a bit of an afterthought after that trial by fire.
And then Duncan made Wulfric walk all the way to Ostagar without shoes. Mean!