Being the Enemy: The Darkspawn Chronicles
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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. |
My experience with the Darkspawn Chronicles skipped to the end of yours, I suppose. From the moment I started it, it seemed dripping with tragic inevitability. It never even crossed my mind that there might be a way to avert it.
I even got the impression that this was the way the world was “supposed” to be, that your Warden was never really intended to thwart destiny. Then again, a running theme through Dragon Age seemed to be that the world and all the people in it were awful and would be better off ended, but a handful of people (including the PC) refused to accept that and would fight it to their dying breath.
Going back to your initial experience, though, have you played through Awakenings? The possibility of some darkspawn having free will is one of the major ideas in that game, so if you haven’t, you should.
You hit on a great point, I think, of how The Darkspawn Chronicles is both great and is, in turn, quite bad. Starting from the former before the later, you can’t really lose. There is only one ending and it is always going to be that the archdemon kills off the remaining Grey Wardens. You can only go forward as the Hurlock. There are no other options. So, the inevitability of this short story is really good in that respect.
On the other hand, yes, it is tragic and that makes it great. However, the question is not “Was it always tragic?” but more “Who is it tragic for?” You used knowledge, as I did, in the judgement of the events. You must have played Origins first and then decided, as I thought about too, if this version of reality was how it was “supposed to be” or not. From the Hurlock’s point of view, this was victory. The archdemon, and thus his army, basically just won in that ordering of events.
However, from the point of view of the Grey Wardens, this was catastrophic and thus tragic. To make that determination though the player has to have played Origins first to get to that point in order to judge it as, as I mentioned, tragic or victory. There must exist knowledge outside the events of the DLC in order to see any of it as tragic. Without that, it’s just the player killing people to get to a goal (not unlike, to take a swing at other games, how the basic mechanics work in other places too).
Actually, speaking of knowledge, I have played Awakening. I played through it before I got to The Darkspawn Chronicles. That was my justification for wanting to kill the archdemon. I knew, having listened to The Architect, that it was possible to give the Darkspawn free will by killing off the archdemon. Although, yes, the Darkspawn would be driven to find another Old god (i.e. dragon), there would be a moment where a strong enough will could take them over and give, in a way, free will again. I combined that knowledge into my role playing as the Hurlock. I just assumed he had agency and had learned somehow of The Architect.
You’re right about the order making a big difference in the perception. I played it in the order of Origins, Darkspawn Chronicles, Awakening. I’m sure I would’ve had a different experience if I’d played Awakening before DC, as you did, and if I’d played DC before even Origins (there’s no explicit ordering in-game, so I imagine some people out there have done this accidentally) I’m sure I would’ve absolutely hated it.
I do think it’s likely that the lack of choice and dialogue in Darkspawn Chronicles was an intentional, experimental, design choice, considering that it came from Bioware. It’s analagous, I think, to a Mario level where jumping is disabled. It might not have succeeded for everyone, or even most, but I don’t think it was a simple case of budget constraints or shoddy work. Of course, I might be reading too much into it, and that might be exactly what it was, heh.