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Jon Chaney

The Rise of a Grey Warden

YOU WANT ME TO DRINK THEIR WHAT?! Dont worry I was just as confused and disgusted

as you are right now when it happened. But before we get into that, how about a little back story. My

name is Jon, Son of Teryn of Ferelden. I am hungry and ready to go fight the Darkspawn, but my Father

had other plans, asking me to stay behind and tend to the castle. He then sent me to go find my brother

Fergus to let him know that he would be leaving to fight. That night my dog Dog woke me, barking and

growling at the door. I heard screaming so i hurriedly grabbed my sword and walked out to see the castle

was under attack.

Two men were outside my door, after defeating them my Mother came running down the hallway

frantically asking about my Father. I ask for her to stay, and that I would go find him but she would not

have it. Running down the alleys we find more and more intruders each group with more and more

soldiers. Knowing this could not end well, seeing the chaos and destruction all around us we continue

deeper and deeper into attackers. Finally we find Father but he is badly injured, It was Howes me! He

betrayed the Kingdom! he cried while laying on his side blood pooled around him. I try telling him that

we will get our revenge but we needed to get out of there when Duncan a Grey Warden walk in. Father

tells Duncan to get my Mother and I out to safety. Duncan agrees to get us out if I were willing to join the

Wardens, to which I quickly accept. Mother will not leave her husband though and yells us off saying that

she will protect him as long as she can.

We were headed south to Ostagar where we met King Cailan, who seemed to be very

inexperienced and completely full of himself. Cailan claims that he wants a A war from the tales and

not the easy victories that he has has thus for. Duncan then has to leave on some other business and tells

me to stay in the city to explore. While walking through the village I found Alistair, another Grey Warden.

Unlike Duncan, Alistair is a bit of a smart-ass, but seems to be (or at least tries to be) helpful. I am joined

by two other recruits, Ser Jory and Some fellow named Daveth as Alistair put it. We are told that our
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next task in joining the wardens is go on a mission into the Karcari Wilds to gather three vials of

Darkspawn blood, and to recover old treaties from the Grey Wardens past.

Almost as soon as we get through the gates outside of the village we are ambushed by a pack of

wolves. I am now getting very nervous of this stroll through the woods because the other two recruits did

not appear to be very competent. As we continue into the wilderness we come across a wounded soldier

who says that his patrol was overrun by Darkspawn. We bandage him up and point him towards town

when Jory, obviously uneasy with what the soldier had said, cowardly states that we should go back too. I

assure him that moving past that fear is part of this test that we are all in. It was at this point that I spoke

too soon because luck would have it, Darkspawn is what we encountered shortly after. Three Darkspawn

rushed us and another three stayed on higher ground with arrows. Being in the front of the group I took

the first one head on and left the other two so that I could reach the archers to stop them from attacking

from afar. Just behind that was the rest of their group twice as large who was also joined with another

pack of wolves. The further we pushed through the more behind it felt like we were getting finding more

and more of these horrible looking creatures. Until we find a bridge with a much larger Darkspawn

standing on it. He was different not only in size but he was carrying a staff that he was casting magic with

onto us almost as if he were shooting out guided missiles so he was much harder to overpower.

Finally we made it through to where we were trying to go and I find a chest, so I thought this

must be where the treaties are. The chest is locked, and as I am trying to find a way to get into it a woman

shows herself. She asks me if I am a scavenger or an intruder, to which I responded I am neither, but this

is an old area of the Warden. She smiles and says that was a long time ago, but her Mother removed

the documents for safekeeping. I go to introduce myself to the Mother and she returns the documents and

has her daughter (Morrigan) show us our way back to the village.

We find Duncan to present him with our findings, as if nothing had happened he reminds us that

joining the Wardens quite dangerous. Thinking that we have had about as bad as it could be we all still

agree to move forward and follow Alistair to the rituals. Duncan grabs a chalice and pours one of the vials

of Darkspawn blood into it (Jory and Daveth appear very uneasy at this point, and I cannot blame
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them),by drinking the blood of a Darkspawn is how we get the strength to be Grey Wardens, and how we

know when they are around. Daveth goes first, he sticks the cup up to his mouth and tilts it up. He falls

to his knees in immense pain gasping for air until he falls over dead. Jory is next and after seeing what

just happened with Daveth he refuses to which Duncan replies that there is no backing out. Jory draws his

sword to which Duncan mirrors, and with one quick attack Jory joins Daveth on the ground. It was now

my turn to meet what the blood had in store for me. I grab the cup with both hand and also press it against

my lips and cock my head back. I also got a jolting pain to strike right through me and though, ok this is it

I am going to die too. But then I begin to hallucinate, and I see a dragon then black out. I am awaken with

Duncan and Alistair hunched over me asking how I felt, and I just said that I was fine, it is over.