Dragon Age: Origins Playthrough - Prologue

The game opens with a voice-over, describing the squalid conditions in which the casteless dwarves live. We see a reasonably well-equipped dwarf walk by, refusing to share any of his wealth with nearby beggars. This dwarf turns out to be Beraht, the leader of an organized crime ring based in Dust Town called the "carta". He walks into the hut where the Brosca family lives, consisting of our character, Amastacia, his sister, Rica, and their perpetually drunk mother Kalah. He approaches Amastacia and Rica and proceeds to lecture the both of them on how Rica needs to look prettier if she's going to attract a dwarven nobleman. Amastacia takes this as good-natured ribbing from a fellow dwarf who clearly cares a lot about them.

Beraht leaves after giving Amastacia orders to shake down a dwarf who owes him money. Rica laments how little respect Beraht has for them, but Amastacia reminds her how wonderful it is to be part of the carta and if anything, they should be more grateful to him. On his way out, he talks to his mother, who is doing a great job of drinking herself into new depths of misery. We're given a dialogue option that allows us to attempt to mess with her by pretending to be the city guard. She rightfully calls her son out for being an insensitive pain in the ass and gets back to drinking what might be ale.

How could he have turned out so rotten with such a great role model raising him?



Heading outside, Amastacia meets up with another carta enforcer named Leske and they head to the Tapster's Tavern together. Once inside, the barkeep points out a trader named Oskias as the dwarf we're looking for. The two carta thugs position themselves on either side of Oskias, who proceeds to describe a scheme that will allow him to escape with his life. Amastacia listens patiently, then decides it'll be easier to just kill the guy. He takes the smuggled lyrium off his body, obediently brings it back to Beraht... and immediately tries to lie about what he found. Beraht sounds angry, but is probably accustomed to this by now.

Despite Amastacia's unreliability, Beraht sends him and Leske to the Proving Grounds in an attempt to rig a gladiatorial contest and collect sizeable winnings from betting on a long shot named Everd. Many important people are at the grounds to watch the Proving, including a human named Duncan. Amastacia knows that he's supposed to slip in and out of the arena without attracting too much attention. Which is why he goes over to Duncan and starts chatting up a storm about Grey Wardens, the darkspawn, and maybe something about how we're having strange weather underground.

Leske eventually drags him away to find Everd... only to discover that Everd is an even bigger drunk than Kalah, and he's completely passed out. The plan was to poison his opponent's water but that won't work now, so Leske encourages Amastacia to put on Everd's armor and impersonate him. Seems like a bad idea. He goes for it right away. Leske then mentions that he still has the poison but Amastacia refuses to use it, deciding that the perfect time to be honorable is while you're committing fraud. With that, he heads out to the arena to fight in Everd's place.

"You're sure I can't just stick my arms up his tunic and control him like a puppet?"

 

Being a warrior, Amastacia is well-suited to the proving, which is apparently being held to honor their human Grey Warden visitor. Given the fact that this thug defeats all the opponents they throw at him, it seems the dwarves didn't exactly honor Duncan with their best fighters. This is made abundantly clear when the real Everd stumbles into the arena, having finally woken up from his ale-induced nap.

With every dwarf in the arena angry at whoever this imposter is, Amastacia comes up with another brilliant line: "I am TOTALLY Everd."

No one believes him, so he is forced to remove his helmet. They are horrified to see his face; even moreso when they realize he's casteless, too. They drag him to the dungeons, as the Proving Master yells that he has no place here. Duncan muses that casteless or not, he still won.

The next thing Amastacia remembers is waking up in a dungeon, but not the city guards'. Leske is there too, and explains that Beraht bribed a lot of people to have the pleasure of killing them himself. So all they need to do is break out of jail, steal some gear and fight their way out of the carta's headquarters. Simple enough if you're the Chosen One in a video game.

After carving through a bunch of dwarven henchmen, Leske and Amastacia find Beraht blocking the exit. He paid good money for an execution and he's insistent on getting one. Amastacia misinterprets Beraht one last time, and executes him. With the leader of the carta dead, a realization dawns on our dwarf: now HE gets to take over the carta!

Leske is not impressed. He suggests they lay low for a while, and think about taking over if they somehow manage to avoid being killed by the entire city of Orzammar. Amastacia scoffs, heads outside and finds the entire city waiting to kill him.

Much to everyone's disappointment, Duncan appears and offers him a way out: the Grey Wardens' right of conscription. Amastacia thanks him for the offer, but decides he'd rather stay and run the carta. Duncan attempts to gently explain to him that this offer is the only thing standing in front of a wall of furious guards. When that fails, Duncan suggests he talk to his sister before making a final decision.

"...I'm having trouble translating this from stupid to English."

Before Rica can complete a sentence, Amastacia is convinced by her words and accepts Duncan's offer.

We leave Orzammar behind for now, with a great many dwarves completely baffled by what just happened.