Being the Enemy: The Darkspawn Chronicles

Do what I say.

As I cut their throats, I never thought of them in pain. The Darkspawn were an ever-constant threat to my team and I slew them by the hundreds. Throughout Dragon Age: Origins, they were just the generic enemy I was killing to progress. I started to think of them as the filler between story beats.

The Darkspawn Chronicles DLC changed my mind. Instead of being mindless killers, I began to think of them as a people to be pitied. By putting me in the very shoes of the Darkspawn, I was able to see the battle from their side. Playing as a Hurlock Vanguard, one of the elite of the Darkspawn army, I began to feel firsthand what it meant to be under command of the archdemon at all times.

I was given visions of the battlefield and directed where to go. I was told to recruit members and build a team. And at first, I did as I was told. I assembled the team and we marched through the city together slewing the citizens of Denerim.

Then I started having second thoughts. I began to remember what it was like to be fighting the Darkspawn as a Grey Warden in Origins and watching people die by the dozens. As I watched a member of my team cut down yet another innocent citizen, I wanted to stop him. I was suddenly tired of the killing.

I took control of him and began to run directly at the enemy in order to end his life but, as I ran into danger, the rest of them ran with me. I was directing a strike, I realized, without meaning to do it. I stopped, but it was too late. I could only control one of them at a time and, as I had one looking on, the others would kill without hesitation.

I began to wonder if they were given the choice, if I could give them back their free will, would they be able to stop? I began to plan some ways to help my new brethren. We did not have to be so enthralled. We could fight against the archdemon’s will. I just needed them to follow my lead.

Go here next.

They would not listen to me. I could kill members of my team at will, but what was the use of that? More would just come flowing into the area. I could direct them to their doom, purposely run them at the enemy, but I was only doing what the archdemon wanted. If I took control and ran them to the other side of the area, they would only run back as soon as let go of them.

They liked the killing too much. They laughed after they cut into the citizens and grunted at me if I stood still too much. They wanted to run and slice. I wanted to find a way out. I could only pull them so far. I must go with the flow and find my moment to stop the archdemon himself, I began to realize.

Follow my voice.

We kept going forward and I kept looking for my time to come. There must a choice up ahead, I reasoned. Yet, we met less and less resistance. All who tried to stand before us were were add to the bodies on the ground. My brothers, as that was how I thought of them now, loved every second. The more blood, the better.

Help me.

As we were getting close, the archdemon called for my help and I knew it was time. If I could split off now, we could have a new life. With the archdemon slain, we could start as a new people with a new culture. We could have our lives back and leave these battlefields.

This is your new target.

I was then in the presence of the most dreaded thing in the world of Dragon Age: Origins, the archdemon, except I was now at his beck and call. My minions, those I had recruited throughout each area, ran at my previous party from Origins and I watched each member die as we killed them together.

I tried to attack the archdemon. I wanted to kill him myself. I would free my people. I was their leader and I would gladly die if need be to set them free. I fought through the crowd raising my sword as I went. My future, our future, was one death away.

I was too late. I learned then that I had never had a choice. Either in fighting the Darkspawn on the side of the Grey Wardens in Origins or, for just a short time, being in their shoes during The Darkspawn Chronicles, they existed for one sole purpose: as enemies. I might try to free them or even think less of them, but they were always there for me to fight against.

There was only one command that Dragon Age: Origins wanted me to remember. The Darkspawn existed for only one reason.

Kill them.