The Unabridged Chronicle of the Fifth Blight by William Clark, Chancellor and Hero of Fereldan.

Published, 9.70 Dragon Age. University of Gwarren Press. Kingdom of Fereldan.

Chapter One

To this day I do not remember how I came to Fereldan, and the place I came from is long since little more than a fading memory. I've lived in Thedas far longer than I spent where I came from, and consider Fereldan closer to a home.

The people I meant and fought alongside, quite unwillingly, are almost all long-since dead, but this based on notes I took when my memory was still relatively fresh, and a bit of interviewing of those who did the actual work to quell the Blight.

I first found myself inside a ruin, nearly blinded by, something that had swept over me. It had recent signs of habitation, but nothing that suggested any kind of rebuilding was going on. Rather there was a pair of two men standing over two bodies. As I listened one said, "What a shame. They seemed to be shaping up to be fine wardens. It seems more die each time."

The other one nodded, "Indeed, they were good recruits. We needed as many Wardens as we could get right now. Oh well, we shall just have to tell the king the Joining failed and these two will not be up for the battle. Their families will be notified. At least those that still have them."

They turned and saw me for the first time. The older one looked at me and said, "Who are you and how long have you been standing there?" As he was speaking they both took swords off their backs.

As they did so I reached down toward the saber currently belted to my waste, for some reason, not that I had much chance against two armored and trained opponents. Not then and likely not now. "I just got here. I don't know how but I didn't see anything."

Duncan nodded and put his sword back in place. "Well it doesn't matter that much at this point anyway. When we win the battle we can conscript him." He paused here and glanced at me, I was rather overweight at the time, not dressed for battle, and honestly out of shape. Also I had a rather nasty cold at the time. Needless to say I was not the most fearsome warrior in Fereldan.

Duncan sighed and muttered under his breath, "Much good it will likely do us." He continued louder, "As for now: Alistair, take our… guest back to the fire and make sure he stays out of trouble."

Alistair nodded, "Yes Duncan." He then turned to me and said, "You, come with me." At that point my only weapons were a cavalry saber badly in need of sharpening and a revolver with only a dozen bullets; it seemed like a prudent course of action to follow him.

The Ferelden army camp was large to say the least. They had raised about seventeen thousand men for this battle, which meant the darkspawn only outnumbered the Fereldens by about 2:1 at this stage in the Blight. For those of you born after the Blight ended, those are extremely good odds. Fortunately, this was still an early stage Darkspawn eruption, and a southern one at that; which meant at the time the ogres were virtually nonexistent, just a few dozen in the entire Darkspawn horde, whereas later there would be hundreds.

The Grey Wardens' fire was rather large, too large to be honest, but I was too scared and a little excited to mention it at the time. Alistair settled into leaning against a pillar near the fire, while I hung back a little farther. He finally looked over at me and said, "what kind of sword is that?"

I drew it out, and answered, "It's a cavalry saber, I forget the name right off hand."

He came over and took the sword, swinging it experimentally a few times, "So you're a cavalryman?"

I snorted. "No. I'm terrified of horses."

Alistair looked at me in a way that pretty clearly said are you serious, but he actually answered, "Then why do you have a cavalry saber?"

I shrugged, "I have fencing class next semester, and wanted to get some practice in before school started."

Again Alistair looked rather confused but hid it well, instead testing the sharpness of the sword. "This is rather dull" (an understatement really. It wouldn't be able to cut through a piece of paper to say nothing of a person) "if you would like, I could get it sharpened."

I was rather excited at this, being transported into a video game is a fantasy for everyone I suspect (don't worry you won't get that for a couple hundred years) and actually taking part was an amazing prospect. I answered, "Sure, I guess."

He nodded and waved over one of the elven servants, "Boy, go get one of the Warden smiths to sharpen this. Make it fast." The servant nodded and ran, off with the holding the sword.

We talked for several more minutes, and I will admit at the time I was excited for what was coming. Playing a video game is one thing, but actually living it is something far greater. Battles at the time held a fascination for a lot of the students of history where I come from, mainly because most of us never see them.

Finally Duncan arrived and he looked cross. Alistair stood up straighter and asked, "How did the meeting go?"

Duncan grimaced, "Cailan won't wait for reinforcements. Hopefully Loghain's plan will work." He quickly outlined the details when I interrupted.

"It won't."

They looked over at me and Duncan asked, "What?"

I wilted a bit under his look, but said, "Loghain is planning treason, he will abandon you all to die."

Duncan stared at me, "that is a serious accusation, why should I believe you."

I considered that question carefully before answering, "You shouldn't, and in your place I wouldn't. Regardless it is true. Everyone here is going to die."

Alistair was the first to answer, "Okay, how could you possibly know that?"

I was silent for a few moments before answering, "I can see the future." Honestly it was the best answer I could come up with. The real one was too complicated and ludicrous to say out loud.

Duncan looked at me for a couple of moments then answered, "No one would be stupid enough to commit treason during a Blight. We will discuss this later. In the meantime Alistair, take our guest with you to the Tower of Ishal, we might need to keep an eye on him. Make sure he gets some kind of armor before the fighting starts."

Alistair did a half-bow and said, "yes Duncan."

With that over Duncan left to join the other Wardens. Shortly thereafter the elven boy ran up. He handed the sword to me by the cloth it was wrapped in. I drew it out and looked at it. This sword hadn't been sharp for a long time, but now a certain life was restored to it. The sword was only two pounds in weight, making it far lighter than any longsword used by my peers. With a fluid motion I put the sword back in the sheath, this was followed up by checking the revolver, it was currently unloaded, something I planned to change when the fighting started.

With that done Alistair led me over to the armory. Ferelden was still using the method of forcing the conscipts to pay for their own weapons and armor, fortunately Alistair had quite a bit of money on hand. With it he bought me a chainmail suit. After a short explanation of how to wear it I put the chainmail on… and collapsed.

Alistair shook his head, "seriously? If you are going to be the newest warden we are utterly screwed aren't we?"

I meanwhile just started trying to get up, which took several minutes. Finally I was back on my feet, and managed to stand, "sorry, I just didn't realize how much chainmail weighs. Movies really don't get that point across."

Alistair just blinked at me, "what?"

"Never mind."

With the mail on though, I put my coat on over it and swapped the chainmail shoes for my boots, they were steel-toed made in my home. The coat went to my knees and fit snuggly over the chainmail. Now I was ready for battle, or so I thought at least.

With this done Alistair led me across the camp to the bridge, and below us the battle was starting. There were archers and ballistae lining the bridge, while below us the King's army deployed in a tight line formation, such as it was. From the forest came the darkspawn; hundreds then thousands advanced out of the Korcari Wilds. The officer on top of the bridge brought his sword down and the archers let loose their first volley, three seconds later the second volley was loosed. Over the next minute twenty volleys of arrows were released into the ranks of the darkspawn horde. Below us another officer shouted for the hounds to be released. Several dozen mabari warhounds charged across the open grounds, slamming into the front ranks of the darkspawn and ripping throats out.

Alistair interrupted the unfolding scene and nodded toward the other side of the bridge and the Tower of Ishal. "That's where we have to go. Let's start."

I followed him across the bridge, dodging fireballs that were aimed at destroying the ballistae. One impacted when we were about two-thirds of the way across the bridge, knocking Alistair down. I had known it was coming and thrown myself to the ground to avoid most of the shockwave. Even so it was a horrible blow, and it took about a minute to recover. Alistair was on his feet before me and rushed toward the end of the bridge, and the relative safety of the fortifications. I caught up when adrenaline gave me some ability to sprint the remainder of the way.

We were sitting there, me catching my breath and Alistair looking very put upon. "Are you honestly this pathetic by accident?" he asked me.

I puffed, "Sorry, running for my life isn't exactly a standard occurrence where I come from. I haven't run in years for anything other than sport."

Alistair rolled his eyes. "Never mind then" (that was one of my many bad habits Alistair picked up over the years). "Let's just keep going."

He made his way up the hill to the gate. I huffed and puffed along several feet behind.

Let me explain for a moment exactly what the Tower of Ishal is. With Solona's plans to rebuild Ostagar as a Fereldan Warden fortress it likely won't be there for much longer. The tower was the center of the mages' control during the old days of the Tevinter Imperium. Mages have the rather bad habit of constructing huge towers, the only explanation I have ever heard was mages hold an innate instinct to build a tower for themselves. It explains quite a bit of Tevinter History. The Tower had almost ten stories, but only a few of them are still accessible. Using magic the Ferelden plan called for a beacon on the top of the Tower of Ishal to be lit, because for some reason a giant beacon lit by people who cannot see what is happening is better than an order given by a man on the ground during a desperate battle. Regardless, lighting this beacon was our main goal.

Our approach to the gates they slammed open and ten soldiers ran out. Following them was a mage. He looked like he would rather have not volunteered for this war, a sentiment I can most definitely understand.

Alistair looked at them and demanded, "what is going on here?"

One of the men, a sergeant by the looks of him, answered, "The darkspawn broke through our defenses. They have utterly overwhelmed our forces inside."

Alistair answered, "how many?"

The sergeant again answered, "Several hundred at least. "

"How many of our troops are left?" This was my first time to speak. It was also what Alistair would need to know if he was to make a decision.

Another of the soldiers spoke up this time, "Maybe fifty scattered around the entrance. I doubt anyone inside is still alive."

I looked at Alistair and said, "well my Lord. What do you plan to do?"

He gave me a funny look, but let it slide. "We advance in. The King needs that signal."

The soldiers nodded. They started to walk back in when I said, "Wait a moment."

They stopped. Alistair looked at me, quite clearly fed up, "What is it now."

I nodded at them. "March in a line. Keep the shields together and attack the Darkspawn to your right. Cover the man to your left with your shield. The most experienced man goes on the right side of the line."

The men started to question that but Alistair saw the intention, "do it. We are going to need to be well-organized if this is going to be pulled off successfully."

The men this time followed orders without too much grumbling. Alistair had that effect on people, he had to, to lead the country through multiple wars successfully and oversee the beginning of Ferelden's industrialization.

As the soldiers formed up the mage pulled his staff out and did some mumbo-jumbo. As he finished all our swords burst into flames. The others took it in stride, me not so much. With a little "EEP" I dropped the sword and jumped backwards from it. Alistair gave a sigh. It was obvious he had half-expected it, but still was rather exasperated."Oh for Andraste's sake. The fire won't hurt the wielder of the sword."

I just looked at him, "What about convection?"

"What about what?"

"Oh, never mind." I gingerly picked up the sword, half expecting my skin to burst into flames. It didn't.

Alistair waited and then said, "are we done?"

I nodded, still keeping the flames well away from all of me. We moved in. Almost immediately darkspawn rushed us. The men stood in line as had been planned. Each darkspawn that got near the line was killed. With this formation in place we rapidly cut our way into ranks of the darkspawn. Within just a few minutes fifty darkspawn had fallen, and we hadn't lost a single man. There were no survivors of the soldiers who had been guarding the base.

I however had my first view of what exactly a battle looks like. Most of those who might see this can't understand the horror of it. When a human dies all their bodily functions cease, whether that is breathing, thinking, or as most people don't realize: holding in their excrement. The field stunk of human waste and blood. Combined with this was the stink of the darkspawn. Honestly at this point there was only one thing to do, I vomited.

After finishing I pulled some paper towel out of my coat pocket and wiped my mouth out. The rest of the soldiers looked on with expressions somewhere between sympathy and contempt. All of them had seen quite a bit of death for years, I had seen it exactly four times. None of it in battle.

Finally I stood straight up again and we advanced up the stairs to the second area below the tower. Up here eight soldiers were fighting against fifty darkspawn. They were obviously losing, but our line moved forward. The line penetrated the group of darkspawn, killing eighteen of them. The soldiers unfortunately lost discipline and started advancing in no line against the group of darkspawn.

Fourteen darkspawn abandoned their first group of prey and rounded on us just as discipline disentigrated. Two shrieks lept upon a soldier and began ripping him apart. Alistair lept into the fray there, his shield slamming one in the face as he stabbed the second in the gut, with another swift motion he slammed the sword into the back of the first, killing it.

As this happened one of the hurlocks charged toward me. This was the first time I had ever been in combat, ever. The Hurlock neared and brought its blade down. The blade slammed into the chainmail with its edge. I very nearly collapsed from the force of the blow, but fortunately the rings stopped most of the damage. With a snarl of pure adrenaline I brought my sword up in both hands and brought it down on the hurlock's head. The blade came down and penetrated the skull.

I felt a surge of triumph and pulled the blade free. Rather I tried to pull the blade free. It had gotten stuck in the Hurlock's head and took several seconds to wriggle out. By the time I finished the fight was over.

Alistair looked over at me, "Well, congratulations You managed to kill your first darkspawn. To be honest most of it came down to luck and you are obviously the most unskilled swordsman I have ever seen."

I looked at him, rather annoyed. "Well, how should I attack?"

Alistair thought for a moment. "Keep your sword closer and remember, chainmail works well against darkspawn swords. They are made for cutting, not stabbing. If the beast is thinner and has a more obvious point make sure to try to either get your sword in the way, or dodge it. Otherwise it might hurt, but a cut from these swords won't be life-threatening." With his little lesson done Alistair motioned toward the upper level. "Well, only one more. Then who knows how many darkspawn inside the Tower itself." The men groaned but got back into line.

The last fight had taught them the difference between disciplined fighting and individuals. We moved up the stairs and found thirty darkspawn coming out of the tower.

What followed wasn't even a fight. The darkspawn charged and the soldiers braced themselves. The darkspawn hit the line and were knocked backwards by the soldiers' shields. With that done the soldiers began stabbing forward. Darkspawn fell in front of them and soon enough they were all dead.

Darkspawn require a rather different strategy than killing a person. People can be injured enough to stop fighting, darkspawn cannot. People will surrender, darkspawn will not. They are the ultimate enemy of mankind, more so than the Qunari could ever hope to be. When a person fights darkspawn soldiers bayonet each body in the throat just to make sure.

We didn't realize that at the time, or at least no one thought of it. Instead we proceeded up the tower steps only to hear charging behind us. We all turned together to see a dozen darkspawn. I cursed, mainly because I was the one closest to the darkspawn. The soldiers moved up alongside me and we met the darkspawn's charge. That is to say they met the darkspawn's charge and I stepped aside. The darkspawn coming toward me kept going, and I brought the saber up. The blade cut through the flesh of the darkspawn's throat, before sliding off the bone.

The blade came out sort of vibrating, a consequence of lacking hand strength. Even so the darkspawn was dead. Around me the rest of the soldiers had finished off the others. Alistair looked down at the corpses and ordered, "take their heads off. We can't afford to be interrupted again."

The other soldiers brought their weapons down on necks and cut through them. I didn't. Rather I again attempted to retch. Fortunately by this time there wasn't anything left in my stomach and a few moments later we advanced into the tower proper.

The lower level was a wreck. Wooden support beams had been destroyed and were scattered around the entranceway. The entrance was a trap. Immediately upon walking in a fireball lanced out of the exit of the entrance hall and slammed into three of the soldiers. Our mage, who had been avoiding battle until now responded. A fireball lanced back toward the source and there was an explosion in the room up ahead. As he did so the flames on our weapons went out, offensive and support spells cannot be maintained at the same time. Realizing we were being bottlenecked Alistair motioned us forward. The soldiers burst out of the entrance hall and into the rotunda of the first level. A Genlock Emissary was lying there, burned black from the fireball that had hit him.

Other corpses, human and darkspawn were scattered around the area as well. Even so several other darkspawn remained alive. They charged and the mage spun his staff around and blasted a wall of fire toward them. The survivors kept coming, but met the swords of the Ferelden soldiers. Six darkpawn fell before sixteen swords (fifteen soldiers and Alistair's).

A quick decapitation for each one settled the fight. With a quick motion the eighteen of us moved on. The next room was much the same, with darkspawn falling as a solid wall of shields and swords advanced. Behind that wall was the mage and myself.

Up and up through the tower we went, story after story. Small groups of soldiers were rescued from the clutches of the horde, but even so by the time we reached the top our group had only grown to 26 soldiers, Alistair, our mage, and myself.

What was waiting for us was a horror. The ogres were rightly feared during the Blight. Groups of them had very nearly spelled defeat in later battles that took place. This one was alone, thankfully.

We advanced, the soldiers holding their shields up. The ogre was not impressed. It turned from where the body of a soldier had been being disemboweled and charged at us. The soldiers tried to stand their ground, but the ogre ripped straight through them. Eight men were sent flying in that first charge, killing them all instantly. Three more were injured badly. With a swipe to the side the ogre picked up another man and bashed him into one of his companions. Another group of men advanced on it while four of others took out their crossbows, shooting the ogre in the back.

It roared and whirled, straight into the waiting swords of those who had come up on it. Their swords stabbed into the ogre's chest. Black blood spurted out from the wounds, but the ogre was mainly just annoyed by this. It grabbed another man and slammed him into the remaining soldiers as more crossbow bolts hit the creature in the head.

The ogre turned toward them and charged. As it did so Alistair leapt toward its unprotected back. His sword penetrated the tendons of its lower right leg. The ogre fell as the right leg gave out from the sword blow. The beast stayed down for less than a moment before pushing itself back up and forcing onwards toward the crossbowmen who fired again. One lucky shot penetrated the left eye. It roared again, grabbing one crossbowman and slammed a fist into his chest. His chainmail tore and his rib cage collapsed. The man gasped once, but with his lungs punctured the man died almost immediately.

It grabbed toward another man, but used the wrong arm and missed by several inches. As it did so our mage muttered a few quick words and a jet of flame shot out of the end of his staff, setting the ogre's hair on fire. The beast's second eye failed it and Alistair stabbed it again, this time in the throat. The ogre fell forward and Alistair jumped out of the way as it did so.

As it fell Alistair swung his sword down upon the back of the ogre's neck. I stepped forward as he did so and tried to assist. Needless to say I wasn't much help. Instead the mage came up and began burning through the neck as well. It took about twenty seconds for us to sever the ogre's neck without any kind of heavier weapon, an ax or hammer.

With the ogre now obviously dead Alistair fell down, obviously exhausted. He motioned toward the fire. "Can someone get that going?"

The mage fell as well, "Sorry, out of energy for now. Give me a few moments."

Alistair nodded, then took out a piece of flint and tossed it to me. "There will be tinder in the firepit. Get the signal burning. Let's hope it's not too late."

I caught it and walked over to the pyre. I took out the flint and glanced back at Alistair, "Can I borrow a knife or something?"

He groaned and then motioned for me to walk back over to the resting men. As I walked back Alistair drew a knife out and said, "You do know how to use this right?"

I nodded, "Yes, I think I do at least."

He rolled his eyes again and muttered, "What a lucky break."

Ignoring that, I again approached the firepit and began striking the knife against the stone. Indeed there was tinder in the pile, and I was naturally terrible at starting a fire. Alistair started to take over, but I finally tossed both the knife and flint down, pulled out a small set of paper matches, which I had for reasons I don't remember, then struck one and lit the fire. Within a few moments the tinder was burning. I reached over to the lighter wood and set them on the flames. The fire started to burn higher when Alistair called, "There's oil next to the pit. We need the fire going a lot faster."

I glanced over and there was the oil I hadn't even noticed. With a quick motion I took it down and tossed it on the flames. The fire quickly started heating faster and the flames reached the larger wood and was finally large enough for the signal to be seen.

Alistair stood up and walked over to the edge of the tower, looking out on the battlefield. He smiled for a moment and then frowned and started waving. He glanced back at us. "they're leaving."

One of the men leapt up and ran over to the railing. He looked down as well. "He's right. Those bastards are leaving us here." The rest of the men ran over to look as well. As each one reached the railing outraged voices could be heard by each one of them. "Traitors." "Die like people." "Come back you cowardly bastards."

As I had told them Loghain used the signal to retreat, leaving the King and Wardens to die on the field. As they left Alistair looked back and me and mouthed, "How did you know?" We watched as the army was slowly surrounded and wiped out.

The remnants of the army disintegrated and were destroyed, only a few survivors fleeing the field. Most were cut down by pursuing Shrieks. Even as we watched a noise came from behind and we whirled around. Coming through the door were more and more darkspawn. Each had a crossbow and raised them. Several soldiers reacted quickly, grabbing their own crossbows and firing a bolt into them. A few fell, but the rest fired. Men screamed as bolts slammed into them. Four hit me. Two bolts slammed into my left leg and I felt the bone break under the impact. A third hit my right shoulder. As I fell a fourth went into my chest. The pain was horrible, but thankfully I lost consciousness rapidly.