The Storyteller's conceit
Dragon Age II tells its tale through a “framed narrative”, a story within a story. In the opening scenes, the picaresque frame placed around our tale is that of Varric being interrogated by Cassandra Pentaghast as she pursues the truth about the rise to power of the Champion of Kirkwall. The world is on the brink of ruin, and Cassandra believes that Hawke has a key role to play in the future. But the Champion is nowhere to be found. If there’s to be any hope of resolution, she needs to understand the target of her investigation. Chronologically, then, the events of Hawke’s life in Dragon Age II are now also history.
As Varric recounts what he knows of Hawke’s adventures, it is down to the player to write those adventures by reliving them. Each Act of the game’s plot focuses on a crucial period in a ten year history, leaping forward through time at the end of each chronicle, such that the consequences of your decisions are all the more apparent.
Prologue: The Escape to Kirkwall
Overlapping the events of Origins, the prologue begins around the year 9:30 Dragon in the Dragon Age calendar, as the Fifth Blight is spreading with nothing to stem the tide of darkspawn.
Ahead of that surge came a deluge of human migrants, overwhelming the village of Lothering. Leaving almost too late, the Hawke family was among the last to make it out alive. Hawke’s mother Leandra suggests that they flee to Kirkwall, where her younger brother Gamlen holds the Amell estate.
On the road they stumble into Aveline and her husband, Wesley, also survivors of the massacre. During their escape, they run into further bands of darkspawn. Though the party defeats many of these creatures, victory comes at a cruel price: Aveline’s husband and Hawke’s sibling are both slain.
The battle only really ends when a dragon swoops from the clouds and blasts the encroaching horde. The beast then transforms into Flemeth, the shapeshifting Witch of the Wilds. She rescues Hawke just as she recently rescued the Warden from the Tower of Ishal (covered in Origins). Having seen them defeat an ogre, Flemeth knows they cannot be peasants, and that means they may be of use. She is intrigued and asks them to perform a favor in return for safe passage past the horde.
They board a ship from Gwaren to Kirkwall, the towering city port. There is no welcome here: the authorities are unwilling to accept the influx of immigrants. All refugees are being held at the gates by the harbor guard, ready to be sent back to Ferelden. The bad news continues when they chance upon their uncle, only to find the family fortune gone and the estate sold. Gamlen explains that he can get them inside if they agree to work for a contact who can be convinced to vouch for them with hard cash. If Hawke will choose a sponsor, they can begin working off the considerable debt…
Act 1: From Rags to Riches
Over a year has passed, in which the player has made friends but little money. Brothers Varric and Bartrand plan an expedition into the Deep Roads. The end of the Fifth Blight makes this the safest time to venture into the abandoned dwarven network in search of antiquities. Though Bartrand dismisses the need for Hawke’s services, Varric persuades the hero to become a business partner.
Principally, partnership means stumping up fifty sovereigns to ‘co-invest’ in the expedition on the promise of being repaid many times over with great treasures from the depths. Hawke simply needs to raise some capital, taking on whatever work can be found.
Hawke recruits a number of characters to aid him in future ventures, including Varric, as well as Aveline who has joined the city guard and offers some contract work to get started. Hawke also encounters Isabela, the pirate captain without a ship; Sebastian, the Exiled Prince; and is hired by Fenris, a fugitive slave. Bartrand believes that no venture into the Deep Roads would be safe without a Grey Warden to scan for darkspawn, so Hawke also tracks down the highly charged Anders. Later, completing Flemeth’s errand introduces Merrill.
The expedition into the Deep Roads leads to an ancient dwarven thaig. Greed gets the better of Bartrand when they uncover a small but priceless statue fashioned from pure lyrium. Double crossing his own brother, Bartrand seals the tomb and leaves his partners to die. The party must tread a more dangerous path to escape.
Act 2: The Champion of Kirkwall
Three years pass. Hawke’s status in Kirkwall has improved, the Deep Roads expedition delivering fame, fortune, and the accompanying opportunities and prestige. When people have problems that need solving in a very particular way, they come to Hawke.
The situation with the Qunari – stranded after their dreadnought ran aground near Kirkwall – is deteriorating. Instead of repairing their ship to return home, they have dismantled it to create a permanent camp within Kirkwall. Despite their leader, the Arishok, claiming to have contacted Par Vollen, no vessel has arrived to ship out his crew. And though the treaty grants them peaceful passage, their continued presence makes the citizens uneasy. Minor incidents between locals and Qunari threaten to ignite the situation.
If the Arishok were to find his holy relic, he could return home. Only a death-deserving dishonor awaits him without it. But Kirkwall is running out of time as the tension with the Qunari rises. When Aveline’s city guard attempts to arrest some elves claiming religious sanctuary within the Qunari camp, the Arishok takes umbrage. Marshalling his forces, he demonstrates the disciplined effectiveness of his fighting force with an audacious counterattack. The streets of Kirkwall play host to running battles. Brooking no blasphemy, he declares that the city will be converted to the Qun or suffer the consequences – consequences that are clearly established when the Arishok throws the viscount’s body before the crowd in the main hall.
Hawke decides upon a course of action – peaceful if the relic is retrieved, or bloody otherwise – that saves the city and earns him the title of the Champion of Kirkwall.
Act 3: The Circle is Broken
Another three years pass. Knight-Commander Meredith has taken stewardship of the city at the request of the Chantry, seizing power in what they considered the only way of keeping order following the viscount’s death. Hawke’s title of Champion is also endorsed by the Chantry, and has earned him more than an estate in Hightown…
The templars are controlling the city like a police state, imagining maleficar under every bed. Since the escape of several mages from the Circle, Meredith has been seeing conspiracies in every action. She orders raids and crackdowns, immediately incarcerating all suspects. There are also tales of insurrection against the templars that could only be the work of magic, so it appears neither faction is blameless. Riots in the slums tell of the fear and anger of the people, who look to their Champion to deliver them true justice and salvation.
Over time, it becomes clear that Hawke will have to choose to support First Enchanter Orsino and the mage cause, or the knight-commander and her templars.
Events reach a tipping point when an arrest warrant arrives for Anders. He claims he is no blood mage but believes the persecution has gone too far. Anders intends to send a message to the world and the Kirkwall Chantry explodes with the fury of that message.
Meredith immediately seeks the Right of Annulment for the safety of the city, which would entitle her to kill all mages. Without Elthina’s mediation, war between mages and templars begins. In desperation, and with no way out, Orsino initiates a blood ritual by harvesting the bodies of sacrificed mages. Immediately possessed, he becomes an abomination in order to defeat the knight-commander’s forces. Even if the Champion wishes to protect the Circle, this creature cannot be allowed to run rampant.
The final reckoning is with Meredith, whose exposure to lyrium has also made her a monster of sorts. She believes the Champion has become a threat, and she can no longer ignore such transgressions.
The showdown calls on the Champion to choose between friends and bear the consequences. If the player sides with the mages, those who escape spread the news. Despite being liberated by the Champion and surviving a massacre, Kirkwall is to become a byword for injustice and brutality once again.
Alternatively, the Champion sides with the templars and shows determination in exterminating the mage threat. Gaining the respect of the Order, Hawke is appointed the new Viscount of Kirkwall.
In closing Hawke’s story, Varric reflects on his friend’s legacy. We learn that the Champion has since vanished or else the dwarf has no desire to let on what he knows.
So what does the future hold? The mage/templar crisis has drawn the battle lines, setting the scene for rebellion and persecution. Religious purges and expurgation can be expected from the Chantry, but news of Kirkwall may incite other Circles to rise up in revolt.
Perhaps more intriguing, is there a reason why Hawke is now “gone, like the Warden”, as revealed by Cassandra in the final scenes? Do the Champion and the Hero of Ferelden have more in common than we know? And what do the mysterious Seekers of Truth have to do with this? Will some kind of inquisition be at the heart of the events of the next Dragon Age title?
Finally, is it safe to speculate that Morrigan may play a major role in future events? Flemeth’s cryptic explanation for her journey to Sundermount (“A bit of security, should the inevitable occur. And if I know my Morrigan, it already has.”) may refer to the Warden’s battle with the Witch of the Wilds – or, perhaps, an artfully conjured facsimile – at her furious daughter’s behest. Flemeth, lest we forget, was discovered to have achieved a form of immortality by periodically appropriating the bodies of numerous “daughters” throughout her history. Then again, with Morrigan carrying a child infused with the spirit of the archdemon in one likely narrative eventuality, it could mean so much more…
Meredith immediately seeks the Right of Annulment for the safety of the city, which would entitle her to kill all mages. Without Elthina’s mediation, war between mages and templars begins. In desperation, and with no way out, Orsino initiates a blood ritual by harvesting the bodies of sacrificed mages. Immediately possessed, he becomes an abomination in order to defeat the knight-commander’s forces. Even if the Champion wishes to protect the Circle, this creature cannot be allowed to run rampant.
The final reckoning is with Meredith, whose exposure to lyrium has also made her a monster of sorts. She believes the Champion has become a threat, and she can no longer ignore such transgressions.
The showdown calls on the Champion to choose between friends and bear the consequences. If the player sides with the mages, those who escape spread the news. Despite being liberated by the Champion and surviving a massacre, Kirkwall is to become a byword for injustice and brutality once again.
Alternatively, the Champion sides with the templars and shows determination in exterminating the mage threat. Gaining the respect of the Order, Hawke is appointed the new Viscount of Kirkwall.
Epilogue: The Dark Times
In closing Hawke’s story, Varric reflects on his friend’s legacy. We learn that the Champion has since vanished or else the dwarf has no desire to let on what he knows.
So what does the future hold? The mage/templar crisis has drawn the battle lines, setting the scene for rebellion and persecution. Religious purges and expurgation can be expected from the Chantry, but news of Kirkwall may incite other Circles to rise up in revolt.
Perhaps more intriguing, is there a reason why Hawke is now “gone, like the Warden”, as revealed by Cassandra in the final scenes? Do the Champion and the Hero of Ferelden have more in common than we know? And what do the mysterious Seekers of Truth have to do with this? Will some kind of inquisition be at the heart of the events of the next Dragon Age title?
Finally, is it safe to speculate that Morrigan may play a major role in future events? Flemeth’s cryptic explanation for her journey to Sundermount (“A bit of security, should the inevitable occur. And if I know my Morrigan, it already has.”) may refer to the Warden’s battle with the Witch of the Wilds – or, perhaps, an artfully conjured facsimile – at her furious daughter’s behest. Flemeth, lest we forget, was discovered to have achieved a form of immortality by periodically appropriating the bodies of numerous “daughters” throughout her history. Then again, with Morrigan carrying a child infused with the spirit of the archdemon in one likely narrative eventuality, it could mean so much more…