Dragon Age: Origins #11 - Into the Dark

[andraste]

You know, I sometimes think that the long crawl through the Deep Roads is potentially more upsetting for a dwarf Warden than for a surfacer. Sure, they've always known it was there. If they're a noble they've even been in before. But nothing prepares you for that seemingly endless slog through darkspawn (and spiders and deep stalkers, just for luck) and a dwarf has to also be thinking 'holy Stone, I lived next door to this my whole life!' Wulfric Aeducan certainly was.

I didn't think that he was going to like Oghren - bringing dishonour to your caste by being a public drunkard like some kind of Duster isn't the kind of thing he'd usually approve of. But of all the dwarves in Orzammar he seemed to be the only one who wanted to help end the deadlock, even if he cared more about finding Branka than picking a new king. And Stone knows the man can fight. (Since I use the Advanced Party mod, I always make Oghren dual wield. Two-handed abilities in Origins are all about methodically controlling the battlefield, which seems more like Sten than Oghren, but dual wield Warriors are whirling cyclones of death.)

When he finally reached the Anvil, Wulfric didn't feel like he had a choice at all. Sure, what Branka had done was horrifying, but after a long walk in the Deep Roads he was even more keenly aware of what his people had already lost, and what they stood to lose in the future if the tide couldn't be turned. If there was even a chance that golems could save Orzammar, what else could he do but let her use the Anvil?

Crown in hand, it was back to Orzammar to crown a new king ... but not the one everyone was probably expecting at this point. I know it's worse for the dwarves in the long run on a meta level, but honestly, is there ANYTHING in all Dragon Age that's as satisfying as pretending to work with Bhelen and then stabbing him in the back at the last moment? Especially when you're his brother and he tricked you into killing your other brother to get you out of the way so he could be king himself? (Besides, as interesting as I find the dwarven throne choice, the more time goes by the more dissatisfied I am with the 'putting a populist dictator on the throne has no negative consequences for the population at large!' approach taken in future instalments. At least putting Harrowmont in power has realistic results.)

So Wulfric's older brother died when shot in the back, and his younger brother died when stabbed in the face, but the end result was that he had no family left except a son he'd never seen. After asking Harrowmont to look after Mardy and the nugget, he asked Mardy to name the baby after Gorim. (I mean, there are no bad choices there, but Gorim was a good second who stuck with him and then sold him great equipment.)