dragon age: origins is a 2009 role-playing video game developed by bioware and published by electronic arts. it is the first game in the dragon age franchise. set in the fictional kingdom of ferelden during a period of civil strife, the game puts the player in the role of a warrior, mage, or rogue coming from an elven, human, or dwarven background. the player character is recruited into the grey wardens, an ancient order that stands against monstrous forces known as "darkspawn", and is tasked with defeating the archdemon that commands them and ending their invasion. — the dragon age: origins wikipedia entry

about my warden, aiden	my favorite characters (wip)
my mod recommendations	quotes from the game (wip)

aiden's journey around ferelden during the fifth blight would end up being the stuff of legend around thedas, but many of the smaller details were lost in the annals of history. moreover, exaggerated accounts and tales of events which never happened became pretty commonplace. so, i figured it was time to set the record straight!! ...and have a reference of my cherished canonical dragon age: origins world state somewhere other than in dragon age keep. i will be referencing the compiled list on the awesome dragon age wiki, though i may not write about EVERY single sidequest. also, the order of the main quests will be different, as aiden tackled things his own way! ...and i had no idea about the intended order until this moment. but, anyway! i hope you enjoy reading about aiden's journey!

table of contents:
01. of noble origins
02. ostagar and the wilds
03. fear and lothering
04. redcliffe
05. the circle
06. the urn of sacred ashes
07. the dalish
08. a paragon of her kind
09. the landsmeet
10. the battle of denerim
11. after the blight

mischief in the larder
marty the dog was barking away in castle cousland's kitchen - much to the dismay of nan the cook, as she didn't appreciate all of the noise. ser gilmore approached aiden about looking into what had marty so riled up. upon finding the hound, aiden was proud of marty for making mischief and became even prouder when it was revealed that the dog was actually trying to warn everyone of the rats which swarmed the larder. aiden, marty and gilmore defeated the rats, and nan gave marty some delicious pork bits despite her exasperation with all the noise he made.

father's task
after wandering aimlessly about the castle with marty for quite some time, aiden eventually found his brother, fergus. the family got together and exchanged their goodbyes prior to bryce and fergus' journey to ostagar, where they would add the couslands' military might to king cailan's forces in battling darkspawn.

the cousland treasury
while castle cousland was under siege due to arl rendon howe's betrayal, aiden and marty convened with eleanor and began searching for bryce together. as they fought their way through the castle, eleanor encouraged aiden to go to the cousland treasury and save the family heirlooms there from howe's forces. aiden obliged and retrieved the weapons which would go on to become his signature blade and shield: the cousland family sword and the shield of highever. notably, the shield of highever once belonged to aiden's ancestor, ardal cousland.

howe treachery
during howe's attack on castle cousland, there were a vast amount of casualties - including fergus' wife and child. fergus had departed from the castle with most of the couslands' main force, and the token force left behind was easily overpowered by the full brunt of howe's soldiers. ser gilmore directed aiden, marty and eleanor to the castle's secret servant exit in the larder, as he saw a wounded bryce making his way over there. he opted to stay behind with the other knights in order to buy the family more time to escape. it would be the last time aiden ever saw him. upon reuniting with his father, it was clear that bryce was gravely wounded with no hope of recovering. duncan, a grey warden visiting the castle in hopes of finding more recruits for the order prior to the battle at ostagar, was fighting enemy soldiers and confirmed the status of the castle - namely, that it was surrounded and doomed to fall. eleanor refused to leave their home and her husband, instead opting to fight to the death at his side. much to aiden's horror, bryce begged duncan to take aiden and make their escape via the larder's secret exit. consumed with rage and in full denial, aiden put up a fight and insisted that his father would be okay and that he could kill howe and all of howe's bannermen. if the castle was to fall, aiden would die fighting alongside his parents. aiden's protests did not amount to anything; instead, duncan agreed to save bryce's son on the condition that he was permitted to induct aiden into the grey wardens. bryce agreed to this term, promising that there would be no political resistance against the idea. there was, however, resistance from aiden - vehement resistance, at that. he refused to join the order, thus pushing duncan to invoke the right of conscription. designed to ensure that the grey wardens would always have members in their order to combat the darkspawn, this right forced aiden into the order. aiden stopped fighting against everyone's wishes upon realising that he needed to tell fergus what happened to their family. along with marty, he bid his beloved parents a final goodbye and then escaped from castle cousland with duncan. from this point onwards, aiden became fixated on getting gruesome vengeance against rendon howe.

joining the grey wardens
upon arriving in ostagar, aiden had a tense encounter with king cailan, as he didn't care for his talk of heroics and glory while he was suffering from the loss of so many loved ones. duncan told aiden that he would need to undergo a joining ritual with some of the other grey warden recruits. in order to carry out the ritual, he needed another grey warden: a man named alistair. duncan tasked aiden with finding alistair, perhaps as a means of giving him space after a very tense journey together. while wandering ostagar, aiden walked by two chatty brothers - one of which was none other than garrett hawke. he did not actually talk to either brother, however. he also saw two other grey warden recruits but decided against approaching them. as you've probably gathered by now, aiden was really not in the mood to chat with anyone... but the walk on his own did him some good and he found alistair without any trouble. the man's somewhat quirky personality was puzzling to aiden, but it was also an oddly welcome relief to all of the gloom which had come to surround him. when alistair stated that one of the great things about the blight was that it brought people together, aiden couldn't help but say that he knew exactly what he meant.

the hungry deserter
aiden helped the jailed man without questioning why he was jailed, as he didn't care. he got food for him by persuading the guard to share his lunch with him.

tainted blood
upon returning to duncan with alistair, aiden formally met the two warden recruits whom he previously avoided: daveth and jory. he did not get along all that well with either of them; when jory regarded him with respect and called him 'lord' upon learning that he was a cousland, aiden grew quite irritated, as the reverence felt like salt in the wound of being ripped from highever. duncan tasked the group of them with retrieving three vials of darkspawn blood from the korcari wilds surrounding ostagar, as the blood was necessary in the highly secretive joining process. in addition to filling these vials, he also tasked them with retrieving a cache of grey warden documents. as aiden, alistair, daveth and jory set off for the wilds, marty remained with duncan. while in the wilds, the group encountered an injured soldier whose group was evidently ambushed by many darkspawn. aiden helped the soldier by bandaging him up. when jory deemed their task foolish and reckless due to the presence of so many darkspawn, aiden called him a coward. jory found issue with this, but, nevertheless, the group of them pressed on through the wilds. they slayed many darkspawn in the process and easily collected the required amount of darkspawn blood.

a pinch of ashes
when he learned that there was a chance that he could summon the shade gazarath, aiden was intrigued by the challenge that fighting it would present and sprinkled ashes in the designated spot in the wilds. he managed to defeat gazarath with relative ease.

last will and testament
aiden learnt of rigby's fate and retrieved his lockbox. later on in his journey, he delivered it to jetta in redcliffe without taking any of its contents.

the grey wardens' cache
aiden and his companions found the cache containing the ancient grey warden treaties, but the chest itself was destroyed and empty. they met a woman named morrigan, who informed them that her mother had taken the treaties. morrigan brought them to the hut that she lived in with her mother, where she said the treaties were now being stored. upon arriving, morrigan's mother - an elderly woman named flemeth - behaved like she was expecting them. this perturbed alistair, but aiden was unfazed, as he figured that tons of old people were eccentric were like that. flemeth claimed that she was keeping the treaties safe as the protective seal on them had been broken and readily handed them over to the the group of them. morrigan then helped guide them back to the main camp at ostagar, where they handed over the scrolls as well as the vials of blood to duncan.

the mabari hound
during their time in the korcari wilds, aiden saw a wilds flower with the rest of the grey warden recruits. daveth told him that the kennel master back at ostagar was looking for one, so aiden decided to take it with him. he gave the kennel master the flower and, upon learning that it was going to be used to treat a sick mabari hound, rejected his offer of a reward.

after the joining
the group of grey warden recruits learnt the well-kept secret that their joining process would involve drinking darkspawn blood, thus explaining why they were tasked with collecting the vials of it. this ritual was to test their physical constitution as well as spiritual fortitude. moreover, ingesting the darkspawns' blood would grant them their grey warden abilities. jory was terrified, as darkspawn blood was commonly thought of as lethal due to the blight sickness that it inflicted. (and he was correct in that there was an element of risk to partaking in the joining; fatalities were common.) daveth had a comparatively tame reaction, as he was previously destined for the gallows anyway. he was willing to risk death if it meant potentially being able to stop the blight. aiden was annoyed by their yammering and told them as such. he did not express it outright, but he was quietly grateful that there was a high chance that he would die in the ritual. daveth perished when he consumed the darkspawn blood, and a thoroughly freaked out jory attempted to flee - forcing duncan to murder him in order to keep the secrets of the order safe. though both of his fellow recruits were now dead, aiden readily drank his portion of the darkspawn blood. for a few strange seconds, it seemed like it had no impact on him... but then, his eyes rolled back in his head and he went crashing down onto the ground, knocked clean out. a short while later, he woke up: despite his wishes, aiden had survived. he was welcomed into the order by duncan and alistair, and received a keepsake called 'warden's oath' - an amulet containing a trace of the darkspawn blood in the chalice which he drank from. it was meant to serve as a reminder of his eternal vigil against the darkspawn. admittedly, aiden didn't care for all of the ceremony and could scarcely wrap his head around the shared duty of the grey wardens. not one to overthink things, he figured that his survival meant that he could at least get revenge against howe. with the joining now complete, the group of wardens then attended a strategy meeting with king cailan and teyrn loghain mac tir concerning the battle ahead. figuring that he would continue to have no say in anything (and being, like, bone-tired), aiden just went along with whatever was asked of him. with that said, he noticed the exasperation that loghain regarded cailan with and quietly related to it. after the meeting, alistair complained that their shared duty during the fight (to stay off the battlefield and, instead, light a beacon atop the tower of ishal, signalling loghain's troops to join the fight by flanking the darkspawn) seemed completely unimportant. aiden wasn't compassionate to his complaints and simply told him to stop whining. this caused a bit of friction between the two, but alistair still went along with aiden.

the tower of ishal
as the battle of ostagar raged all around them, aiden, alistair and marty rushed to the topmost floor of the tower of ishal. along the way, they aided a tower guard and a circle mage, who joined them in their task. (...not to break your immersion, but, as an aside: i have a mod which lets me use marty in addition to three other companions, so that's why he got to come along!) the fight to the beacon ended up being quite the challenge, as many, many darkspawn had managed to breach the tower. once they were all slain, the group were also greeted by a massive ogre right beside the beacon that they were charged with lighting. aiden managed to get the final blow on the beast, and the group fulfilled their goal of lighting the beacon. however, loghain did not heed the call, instead retreating with his forces. both cailan and duncan were killed on the front line during the battle, along with hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers. ostagar was lost. another wave of darkspawn stormed the tower of ishal, proving to be too difficult for the group to handle. at some point in the ensuing battle, aiden was knocked out. when he woke up, he was no longer in the tower - but, rather, in a hut. morrigan was nearby, and she explained the situation to him. alistair and marty both survived (rest in peace, tower guard and circle mage) along with aiden, as flemeth transformed into a massive bird and flew into the room, fending off the darkspawn and retrieving them. furthermore, loghain had blamed the king's death on the grey wardens and was now in power thanks to the vacuum left by cailan's death. as a participant in ostagar, fergus' fate remained unknown. upon reuniting with alistair and marty outside of the hut, the group decided that they would use the warden's ancient treaties to form a formidable army capable of fighting the darkspawn and ending the fifth blight. this meant travelling to a variety of locations around ferelden and gaining aid from those locations' respective leaders. flemeth also insisted that morrigan join the two of them; aiden welcomed her to the group, figuring that they'd need all the help they could possibly get. he also treated alistair with comparably more tact, as his fellow warden was grieving the loss of duncan - and aiden was no stranger to grief. though aiden still clutched onto his contempt towards duncan, he found himself surprisingly disappointed over the senior grey warden's death. he brushed this off as merely regretting the additional duty that was now placed on his own shoulders.

bandits on the road
right before arriving at lothering, the group were approached by a group of bandits. they demanded a toll of 10 silvers from the group, or else they would not be able to go into lothering. aiden refused to pay anything and immediately threatened them, intimidating them into rescinding their demands. though the group now had free access into lothering, the bandits' cowardice paired with their eagerness to prey on refugees from ostagar only served to piss aiden off more, and so a fight ensued. when the leader begged for his life, aiden demanded that they hand over everything that they stole, then let them go. (marty also brought aiden a pair of dirty pantaloons, for some reason.) upon arriving in lothering, aiden handed over the stolen goods to ser bryant.

the unscrupulous merchant
aiden sided with the sister and intimidated the merchant into lowering his prices. the merchant stayed in lothering, offering his goods for the proper price.

recruiting leliana
aiden, marty, morrigan and alistair met leliana in dane's refuge, the tavern in lothering. a group of men tried to arrest them upon entering, and leliana came to their defense. after the combat, aiden told the commander to send a message to loghain on his behalf: "he'll have to do better than this." leliana and aiden spoke afterwards, and, while aiden wasn't so sure about the prophetic visions which she spoke of, he wasn't about to turn a skillful rogue down. he agreed to her request to come along with the group.

lothering and the imperial highway
the gang did all of the sidequests here: aiden gave elder miriam the three lesser health potions that she needed, aided the iconic old barlin in obtaining three flasks of venom, and gave ser donall the amulet which belong to his fallen templar comrade. leliana made allison the three spring traps which she requested, and the whole group tackled all of the requests on the chanter's board. (aiden also made the chanter there say 'what?', much to the delight of a small child.) furthermore, aiden made a donation of 50 silvers to an elven family who was robbed and informed them that the bandits were gone now, too. this made them very happy.

the qunari prisoner
aiden spoke to sten - the qunari being held captive in a large cage. sten vaguely implied that he'd rather die in battle rather than in the cage, but aiden didn't really work out why he was in that cage. intrigued, aiden wanted to free him so that he could aid him in his quest to end the blight. though most of the party questioned this decision, the group went over to the chantry and spoke to the revered mother. after learning that sten was guilty of killing a family, the news admittedly hit a nerve - but aiden thought that there was more to the story, as sten didn't flee the scene or cause more destruction in the town despite clearly being capable of doing so. undeterred, aiden intimidated the revered mother into handing the key over. this was, of course, much to alistair and leliana's horror. morrigan was amused by it, though. sten was surprised when aiden freed him, but joined the group as a means of atoning for his crime regardless.

a village under siege
the gang visited redcliffe first, hoping to gain arl eamon's support as per alistair's encouragement. this was because alistair spent a period of his childhood in the arl's care. to call it "care," however, is quite the stretch, as many aspects of how the arl treated alistair during his childhood pointed towards neglect and general mistreatment. for example, alistair was forced to sleep in the kennels, was never made to feel truly welcome within the family, and was eventually sent to the chantry to become a templar (until duncan recruited him into the grey wardens). still, alistair spoke of eamon with fondness, so aiden kept his distrust of the arl to himself. upon arriving at redcliffe, alistair told aiden that he was actually a royal bastard who was placed in eamon's care as a means of covering his true heritage up. aiden didn't treat alistair any differently upon learning of his royal blood, but he started to think that arl eamon was not only an asshole but also pretty damn suspicious. regardless, as it turned out, the group could not talk to the arl, as redcliffe was dealing with masses upon masses of undead corpses wreaking havoc upon the town every night. these undead corpses descended from redcliffe castle - where the arl resided - but no one was able to go up there due to all of the Fiends. bann teagan informed the group of all this, then requested their aid in dealing with the undead. aiden immediately agreed to aid redcliffe. teagan sent him to talk to redcliffe's mayor, murdock, as well ser perth, who seemed to hold some authority over his fellow knights. aiden helped murdock with raising morale, managing to convince the blacksmith, owen, to do armor repairs (by kicking his locked door down, then agreeing to help find his daughter, who was last seen in redcliffe castle) and intimidating dwyn into joining the militia. moreover, he convinced the tavernkeep, lloyd, to join the militia, and put the waitress, bella, in-charge of the tavern during his absence. she agreed to hand out free ale to the militia. when aiden approached mother hannah about getting a blessing for the knights, she refused, as she didn't want to promise "holy powers" to the knights. ser perth accepted her decision when aiden reported back to him. aiden also helped find a lost child named bevin during this time, returning him to his worried sister, kaitlyn.

the attack at nightfall
the following night, the undead descended upon redcliffe. the preparations that aiden assisted with ended up being enough to keep most of the townsfolk safe. (i had to reload so many times. so many times.) the only casuality was lloyd, the barkeep, who Mysteriously Perished in the attack. bella then found herself as the proud owner of what was once his tavern. she went on to rename the tavern to "the warden's rest" in honor of aiden. with the town safe, the group wrapped up a variety of small tasks around the place, including the requests on the chanter's board.

the arl of redcliffe
with the undead cleared out, arlessa isolde escaped from the castle to ask for teagan's aid. isolde claimed that an evil force was unleashed upon redcliffe castle by a blood mage, who was paid off by loghain with the goal of poisoning arl eamon. aiden and the rest of the party learnt of a secret entrance which would let them into the castle. after taking this secret route into the castle and fighting off more undead corpses (who were still plaguing the castle itself), the gang encountered the blood mage who isolde was complaining about. the man's name was jowan, and he was imprisoned in the castle's dungeon. jowan was tutoring arl eamon's son, connor, in the magical arts as opposed to connor being sent to the circle to receive formal training as per chantry law. this was also jowan's cover so that he could poison arl eamon in exchange for amnesty (for practicing blood magic) from loghain. with that said, he did not summon the hordes of undead which were roaming the castle and previously terrorizing the town; isolde wrongfully accused him of such and had him tortured and imprisoned. connor's status as an apostate was quite the bombshell revelation, but aiden didn't particularly care about the assassination attempt, as he already disliked eamon for his treatment of alistair. when jowan offered to help make the situation right out of his guilt regarding poisoning the arl, aiden told him not to bother and assured him that he'd handle it. admittedly, this wasn't exactly out of mercy so much as thinking that it'd be a big headache if isolde were to see jowan again. aiden let jowan out of the cell and told him that he never wanted to see him again. alistair initially objected to this, but aiden successfully convinced him that it was the right call. the group then fought their way to the main floor of the castle, where they encountered isolde, connor, and teagan. teagan was clearly possessed and dancing around wildly, and it seemed like connor was the one controlling him. after connor commanded a bunch of knights (as well as teagan) to attack the party and then promptly ran away, the secret concerning connor was completely out of the bag: the stress of his father's poor condition due to the poisoning made the untrained mage susceptible to possession and a demon seized control of him. this demon was the reason for the undead's presence in redcliffe. morrigan suggested conducting a ritual wherein a mage could enter the fade and kill the demon there, thus freeing connor from its control. for this to work, however, they would need more mages as well as a lot of lyrium. as aiden refused to humor the alternate suggestion of simply killing connor, the group turned their attentions towards the circle tower. before setting off for the tower, aiden found owen's daughter hiding away in a room within the castle and she returned home to her father. when owen offered a reward to aiden for finding her, aiden turned it down, as it was part of their earlier promise.

alistair's family
aiden and alistair took a quick detour across ferelden to visit alistair's sister in denerim. alistair sought out a reunion with her - but it went sour when goldanna was disinterested in him as a person and solely sought money from him. aiden told her that alistair was hoping to find his family and alistair promised to look after her, but the reunion was pretty terrible for everyone involved. afterwards, alistair thought of himself as a fool for expecting her to accept him. aiden told alistair that everyone in the world tended to be out for themselves and that alistair should learn that. alistair agreed, and they departed denerim for kinoch hold.

broken circle
easily intimidating caroll the templar into giving them access into the circle tower by telling him that his patience was wearing thin, aiden and the rest of the party entered kinoch hold. once inside the tower, the group learnt that the tower was overrun by abominations and demons. the templars were planning on invoking the rite of annulment, which would involve killing everyone within the tower so as to prevent the demons' influence from spreading any more than it already had. aiden insisted that brutality should only be directed to the abominations, not towards innocent survivors. he then swore to both purge the demons and save the mages trapped within. knight-commander greagoir agreed to this - but only on the condition that aiden brought first enchanter irving back safely to him, as he would not trust anyone else's word on the status of the tower. with the deal made, aiden and his companions ventured deeper into the tower, greagoir locking the door behind them - effectively sealing them in. inside, aiden saw truly horrific stuff: huge flesh sacs of bulbous meat growing out of walls, many slain mages and templars, and, of course, tons of gore. he had a strong stomach and pressed on undeterred. shortly after entering the tower, they met a senior enchanter named wynne. wynne was engaged in battle with a rage demon and was protecting a small group of survivors, including apprentice mages and children. once the demon was slain, aiden informed her of greagoir's decision and the two decided to join forces. morrigan voiced some disapproval about this, but aiden was able to convince her to not be Quite as upset about it. aiden took a no-nonsense approach to the demons and abominations within the tower and was unwilling to talk - much less discuss any bargains - with them. while exploring the tower further, aiden retrieved a black grimoire, which he would later give to morrigan. he also defeated the rage demon shah wyrd and retrieved a greatsword called yusaris. eventually, the group stumbled upon a particularly powerful demon - sloth - who, despite aiden's attempt at resistance, successfully managed to put him and the rest of the party to sleep.

the fade: lost in dreams
aiden woke up in a large chamber. duncan soon walked over to him and was confused over aiden being shocked that he still lived. according to duncan, he actually survived ostagar. the blight was over, and the two of them were now in weisshaupt. aiden's relief over seeing duncan took him by complete surprise; the shock of it made resisting duncan's claims all the more easy. there was no way that anything that he was saying was true; the real duncan was dead, and aiden had a blight to get back to. the false-duncan called aiden a foolish child; he said that he gave aiden so much, only for aiden to repeatedly cast it back in his face. he asked why aiden couldn't be content with the peace that he offered - and then attacked with two other grey wardens. again, aiden was shocked at how emotionally difficult it was to fight "duncan" - even while knowing that whatever was talking to him was not actually the real duncan. he emerged from the battle victorious, but was deeply impacted by the illusion of fighting the senior grey warden. aiden showed duncan total resistance while he was alive and the two never truly connected; after duncan's death, aiden figured he was only sad about it due to the duty which it placed on his shoulders. after this confrontation, however, he realised that some part of him did begin to view duncan as a mentor figure. he was the reason why aiden still lived, after all; the reason why howe would face consequences for his actions and the reason why his family name could some day be avenged. moreover, this 'gathering forces to fight the blight' thing was turning out to be a massive hassle, so aiden was beginning to understand why duncan was so adamant about recruiting wardens. but it wasn't the time to think of such things. aiden departed from his nightmare and pressed on through the fade. while in the fade, aiden met niall - a mage who was imprisoned in the fade shortly after obtaining the litany of adralla. the litany would have protected his mind from the control of blood mages; this would have allowed him to face uldred, the senior enchanter who was, at that moment, trying to take over the circle and the cause of all the chaos within it. aiden and niall worked together in an attempt to escape from the fade, quickly bonding over their shared proclivity for dark humor. with niall's guidance, aiden amassed a variety of different forms (a mouse, a spirit, a burning man, and a golem) in order to traverse a variety of different parts of the fade. furthermore, he encountered the companions who he brought into the circle trapped in their own nightmares in a fashion similar to his encounter with duncan. he aided alistair, wynne, and leliana in their respective nightmares, breaking them free - and, after a whole lot of confusing yet iconic gameplay, managed to defeat sloth at the end of it all. unfortunately, after sloth was slain, niall confessed that he had been in the fade for too long and that he knew his real body would have already wasted away in the real world. he encouraged aiden to take the litany of adralla off his corpse upon making his return. when niall remarked that he hoped he hadn't disappointed his mother, who had once said that niall was destined for greatness, aiden assured him that he didn't disappoint her in the slightest.

broken circle (continued)
free from the fade and back in the circle tower, aiden did as niall asked and retrieved the litany from his corpse. with it in hand, the group pressed on, seeking to challenge uldred and end the crazy shit happening within the circle once and for all. en route to the harrowing chamber, they ran into a templar named cullen, who was trapped in a magical prison and resisting the blood magic trying to control him with all of his might. after calming him down somewhat, cullen told aiden that uldred was forcing the rest of the mages top become abominations and claimed that everyone in that chamber simply had to die. aiden disagreed with this course of action and pressed on towards the harrowing chamber. when inside, aiden and the rest of the party saw uldred forcing a mage into becoming an abomination. after a heated back-and-forth, aiden told uldred that he could say what he liked; he was still going to kill him. combat ensued, with uldred transforming into a massive pride demon for its duration. the litany proved useful in preventing uldred from turning any more mages into abominations. once the party killed him, they saved first enchanter irving and made their way back to the circle's ground floor. aiden brought irving to greagoir as promised, and the knight-commander willingly agreed to call off the rite of annulment. the grey wardens then gained the support of the remaining circle mages, who pledged their services in fighting the blight and joined the grey wardens' army. wynne also permanently joined the party. later on at camp, aiden's experiences within the circle tower had him questioning his strength and brought back feelings of weakness that he'd only ever experienced during the night of howe's betrayal. in particular, he took falling into the sloth demon's trap very hard and figured that such a thing would not have happened if he had the proper tools in order to resist its magic. while the templars of kinloch hold didn't exactly leave him starry-eyed, aiden knew of their anti-magic powers and began ruminating on using them during their quest to end the blight. after talking it over with alistair (who received templar training previously) and arranging for a personal supply of lyrium, aiden took on the templar specialization.

journey back to redcliffe
aiden bonded with all of his companions as the group made their way back to redcliffe. he learnt of leliana's bardic origins and the betrayal that she faced from her former mentor, marjolaine, and he also learnt that sten was seeking out his lost sword (as per the qunari warrior belief system, to lose his sword was akin to losing his soul, and his panic upon realising that it was lost explained his actions in brutalizing the family who saved him). furthermore, he gave the black grimoire which he found in the circle tower to morrigan, who began studying it. he bonded with wynne and developed a bit of a fixation on griffons of legend, and then had a heart-to-heart with alistair, who swore that he would look out for himself more and thanked aiden for being a great friend. while on the road, wynne passed out; aiden confronted her afterwards regarding her health, and wynne revealed that she was actually "on borrowed time," as she was technically killed in the battle at kinloch hold and was saved by one of the benevolent spirits in the fade. some time later, the party fell into a trap laid for them by an elven assassin who was hired by loghain. this assassin survived the battle which ensued and appealed to aiden, saying that his name was zevran (zev to his friends). he was an antivan crow who had, "sadly," failed in his task of slaying the remaining grey wardens. aiden remarked that he was rather happy that he had failed, and the two somehow managed to hit it off despite everything. zevran asked to join aiden's party and swore that he would be loyal to him, as, according to the crows, his life was now forfeit due to failing at killing his mark. impressed by zevran's gall and admittedly quite charmed by his general demeanour, aiden readily agreed to spare him and welcomed him into the party. alistair was incredibly alarmed by this, but leliana thought that it was a fine idea. the journey to redcliffe continued, with aiden and zevran talking quite a lot at camp - usually over a shared bottle of wine or two. they learned a lot about each other and found that they had quite a lot of chemistry; it didn't take long for them to begin consistently sleeping together.

into the fade
with the mages' support now attained, the group had enough resources to conduct the ritual which morrigan suggested in order to save connor from demonic possession. aiden suggested wynne for the job given her experience in dealing with spirits. wynne agreed to the task and entered the fade. she was victorious in her task, traversing the fade once more and killing the desire demon which was possessing connor. when the demon tried to talk to wynne instead of fighting, wynne refused and took it on instead. with the demon gone, wynne exited the fade. connor regained control of himself, and plans for him to study magic properly at the circle were eventually arranged. with the demonic presence no longer in redcliffe, arl eamon's condition improved, implying that the demon had some role in worsening the poison which loghain arranged. the arl was still bedridden from the poison's impact on him during redcliffe's worst days, however, and it was not known if he would ever recover by natural means. teagan told the aiden about the urn of sacred ashes; the ashes within the urn were said to be that of the prophet andraste and capable of miraculous healing effects. despite everything, there was no other way to attain redcliffe's aid; as such, aiden took on the quest of finding a pinch of these ashes.

the golem in honnleath
aiden and the rest of the party stopped off in honnleath, purging it of both darkspawn and demonic influence. aiden lied to kitty the desire demon and pretended to help it, only to later betray it and demand that it not touch the girl whom it wished to possess. this enraged kitty, which caused a fight, but aiden and the rest of the party prevailed over it easily. the girl - amalia - then reunited with her father. as thanks for saving his daughter, the man told aiden the command phrase for the golem that stood, motionless, in the middle of the town. aiden used it and met shale, who joined the party.

the sword of the beresaad
aiden asked sten for more information about his lost sword, asala. as a human, aiden didn't share the qunari belief that the sword was an extension of his soul or anything - but he certainly knew the importance of a good blade and maintained a very, very high degree of sentimentality over his own weapons (the cousland family sword and the shield of highever). if he were to lose those weapons, aiden knew that he'd stop at nothing to retrieve him - and so he decided to aid sten in finding asala. sten last remembered having the sword at lake calenhad, and so the party made their way over there. they found a scavenger roaming around collecting other weapons, but he did not have the sword; he instead directed them to a man named faryn, who "owned" the land previously. the party travelled to the frostback mountain pass and found him. when faryn was being somewhat unforthcoming, aiden simply told sten to tear his arms off. wanting to keep his arms, faryn directed the two of them to dwyn, back in redcliffe. aiden easily intimidated dwyn into handing over the sword, and sten was finally reunited with his blade. sten would go on to use asala for the rest of his time in aiden's party. he also began to refer to aiden as 'kadan' - a qunari term of respect. additionally, sten and marty bonded. marty approached sten, and, after the two communicated by exchanging a series of growls, sten told marty that it was good to be reunited with his blade once more. he then acknowledged that marty understood what it was like to have a weapon as a part of you. he called marty a true warrior who was worthy of respect.

leliana's past
previously, leliana told aiden about her past work as a bard in orlais. her mentor, marjolaine, had betrayed her horribly - framing leliana and her two fellow crime partners (and friends), sketch and tug. the trio were arrested and abused; the torture which tug was put through (as a means of saving sketch's life) ended up killing him. leliana managed to break out of the prison with sketch, and the two parted ways - with leliana giving up on her past as a bard and instead joining the andrastian cloister in lothering. evidently, marjolaine was still keeping tabs on leliana, as assassins hired by her eventually found the party and attempted to kill leliana in particular. luckily, they were dealt with easily, though leliana was understandably rattled by the encounter. now knowing that marjolaine was in denerim, leliana asked aiden about confronting her. angered by the assassination attempt (it didn't even have PANACHE like zevran's) and feeling protective over leliana, aiden agreed to this - especially since the group was already en route to the city thanks to their quest for the urn of sacred ashes. they found marjolaine easily, and marjolaine revealed that she thought that leliana left the cloister in order to make an attempt on her life. while this was a misunderstanding, the extreme logical leap disgusted aiden. moreover, he was pissed off by marjolaine's attempts at manipulating leliana. since the assassination attempt was technically "a mistake," there was an option to let marjolaine go with a warning - but aiden encouraged leliana to severe their warped connection once and for all. seeing that leliana had truly broken out from her influence, marjolaine attempted to kill the party; however, the party emerged victorious once more, with leliana killing marjolaine. later on at camp, leliana wondered if she ever truly wanted to leave the bard lifestyle at all, as a part of her still loved the thrill of hunting down targets as well as "the grand game" of orlesian political intrigue and sabotage. while aiden understood what she meant, as he loved Violence and received a whole lot of catharsis from the battlefield, he didn't think that everything she went through without marjolaine looming over her was some sort of lie. he was not the most pious person by any means, but the way that leliana talked about the maker as well as her cloister was too genuine to be nothing but escapism. her stories even inspired him, at times, and gave him faith that the world was worth saving. leliana took his words to heart and decided to stick to her more virtuous path. their conversation also left aiden reflecting on his own approach to their journey. he realized that he was forming genuine bonds with his companions, and, while his desire for revenge was still very much there, that the pure anger which motivated him at the start of his journey had begun to dull. it scared him, but he didn't fight against that fear.

the urn of sacred ashes
aiden, leliana, wynne and zevran paid a visit to brother genitivi's house in denerim, as they knew that genitivi was researching the urn. there, they met weylon, gentivi's assistant, who told them that genitivi was missing. aiden noticed that he was acting pretty suspicious and accused him of hiding something; immediately, weylon panicked and attacked the party. unfortunately, they had to kill him; but then aiden found the corpse of the real weylon hidden away in the back of the house. it turned out that the man was an imposter. along with weylon, the group found genitivi's research journal. aiden read the journal, which confirmed that genitivi was searching for andraste's ashes. it also provided a new lead for the party, as it detailed genitivi's plans to visit the village of haven. as such, the party traveled to the village of haven. something seemed very wrong about haven from the very beginning, as a guard questioned them and pressured them to leave - but allowed them to "trade." while walking around to "trade," a small child said some ominous things and showed aiden a finger bone. in the village store, aiden looted antivan leather boots, which he gave to zevran. zevran loved them and shared some information about antiva with aiden upon receiving them; he could identify the antivan leather by smell alone and tried them on after aiden asked what he was waiting for. zevran would go on to wear the antivan leather boots for the rest of their journey together. the group explored haven some more, soon finding mysterious, blood-stained altars and the like. with their secret now exposed, the cultist villagers became hostile to the group and they had to fight them. the fighting persisted even within haven's chantry, where they faced the leader of the congregation. aiden looted a cultist medallion from his corpse. he also found genitivi tied up and stowed away in a hidden back room. after freeing him, genitivi claimed the ashes could be found within a nearby ruined temple, and that the cultist medallion acted as a key in opening this temple. he also wanted to join the party in visiting it. at first, aiden told him that wasn't possible, as it was going to be dangerous and he didn't want to lug genitivi around. leliana objected and said that she'd look after him herself; upon hearing this, aiden decided he'd let the scholar accompany them. the group then left the chantry and headed for the temple. luckily, after opening the temple's doors, genitivi decided to stay at the temple entrance and left the party to deal with all of the danger. and the temple was, in fact, rife with danger! deeper within it, the party fought drakes and dragonlings as well as more cultists. eventually, the party ran into the leader of the cultists: father kolgrim. he revealed the cult's beliefs to the party: namely, they thought that andraste had risen from the dead and took the form of a dragon. he said that he'd forgive aiden for all of the actions that he took against the cult thus far if he took a vial of dragon's blood (which he refered to as a vial of andraste's blood) and poured it into the ashes, effectively defiling them. aiden refused, which, naturally, led to yet another fight. upon dealing with the cultists, aiden yoinked kolgrim's horn, and the party pressed on until they reached an open part of the temple right at the very top of the mountain. there, they saw the dragon which kolgrim spoke of (and called 'andraste'). luckily, the beast was asleep, so they managed to sneak right past it. re-entering the other end of the temple, they found themselves in the gauntlet.

a test of faith
an armored guardian spirit stood there, tasked with protecting the contents of the temple beyond that point. the party would undergo a series of tests before finding andraste's ashes. the first of these tests was highly personal: the guardian took a peek into each party member's past and asked them questions based on it. the guardian noted that there was immense suffering in aiden's past - both his own as well as the suffering of others. he asked if aiden thought he betrayed his parents back in highever. aiden said that he betrayed them; that he should have stayed and defended them to the death. after each member of the party faced similar painful questioning, the group faced more trials. in the first one, they solved a series of riddles given to them by various spirit figures from andraste's past. at the end of this trial, aiden saw his father. though he wished it were not the case, aiden knew that his father was dead - and he told this spirit as such. the spirit agreed that aiden knew that he was gone, and that all of his prayers and wishes would not bring him back, but also told aiden that he must not grieve anymore. he told him to "take the pain and the guilt, acknowledge it, and let go," referring to aiden as his son all the while. he left aiden with an amulet called 'reflection.' the party then faced another trial, where they had to fight spectral versions of themselves in combat. the third trial was one of trust. each party member had to position themselves on stone platforms in order for a magical bridge to appear across a massive, dark abyss positioned in the middle of a wide room. aiden crossed this bridge as the party altered themselves to suit. once aiden crossed over to the other side of the room, the bridge locked into place, allowing the rest of the party to follow suit. they were then presented with the final trial as they entered a chamber sectioned off with a wall of fire. each party member had to remove all of their equipment and walk through these flames. once they all did so, the guardian reappeared and congratulated them on proving their worth to andraste. the party was then able to get a pinch of andraste's ashes, contained in the sacred urn upon a huge, beautiful altar. while everyone was shocked to see that the urn actually existed, wynne and leliana had significantly more of an emotional response to it compared to zevran and aiden. regardless, with the pinch of ashes now secure in aiden's pack, they left the temple.

the urn of sacred ashes (continued)
genitivi was extremely excited to see them back at the entrance and immediately began making plans to share the urn's location with the rest of the world. aiden was deeply displeased about this, as he thought it trivialized the urn's spiritual significance, but he opted against killing the scholar in order to silence him. parting ways with genitivi, the party made their way back to redcliffe, where they healed arl eamon with the ashes. the grey wardens then finally received the support of redcliffe's soldiers in stopping the fifth blight, as eamon pledged soldiers to their cause.