Random Musing

[zute]

“Who was the first guy that look at a cow and said," I think that I'll drink whatever comes out of those things when I squeeze them?”
 Calvin & Hobbes

That quote got me to thinking about who was the first guy who decided to drink darkspawn blood. Then I thought, wait... it also takes archdemon blood. So how could the first Grey Wardens have been created before they had slain their first archdemon? 

Comments

[sakuratea]

if a Grey warden doesn't slay the archdemon, then it's just reborn. Maybe it still leaves a body behind, though. I'm guessing they killed it a number of times before they figured out the trick to getting rid of it for good. It certainly seems less than intuitive to me.

[elysium_fic]

I believe this is true. The First Blight was nearly two centuries long.

It looks like perhaps the first Grey Wardens didn't actually drink archdemon blood? Wiki says they somehow mingled darkspawn blood and lyrium.

Becoming a Grey Warden requires a dose of the darkspawn corruption in sufficient potency to have an immediate effect, rather than slowly corrupt the consumer into a ghoul. While archdemon blood is typically used, blood of other darkspawn creatures can also be magically treated to make it function in the ritual. However, the average darkspawn doesn't have enough of the corruption within it for this to work. [2]


Anyway, I guess this appears in the codices after Riordan tells how the Grey Wardens kill the archdemon:

After Riordan reveals the truth about the Archdemon: When the first Blight began, many brave men and women threw themselves at Dumat, the first archdemon, trying to strike him down. But no matter the numbers, no matter their strength, he would always return. This was proof, some said, of his divine power.

But the Grey Wardens soon learned otherwise. Their tainted blood bound them to the archdemon, and they could hear it, feel it, as it died and was born anew, its spirit drawn to possess the nearest tainted creature. The darkspawn were mindless, soulless, empty shells of flesh that could be bent and remade in the dragon's image. But a man... a man's soul was not so malleable. When a Warden's hand struck a fatal blow against Dumat, the Old God's spirit was drawn not to a darkspawn but to the man who had slain him. In that moment, the souls of both the Warden and the archdemon were utterly destroyed. And the dragon rose no more. The Blight was over.

[zute]

A very spooky thing about that codex entry is that it says the Grey Warden's soul is destroyed, not that they just died. For people who believed in some sort of afterlife that would be rather terrifying I should think.

[elysium_fic]

I agree, it's a rather grim prospect.

[scarylady]

How do they know?

[zute]

Ah! Excellent question. :)

[aithne]

I can think of several alternative explanations for what happens to the Warden/archdemon pair. None of them are pleasant, at all. Possibly the "destroyed" thing is a less bitter pill to swallow than the other possibilities.

[eltha7]

This post on the forums says that it isn't specifically archdemon blood that is required, just a very high concentration of the taint, which can be obtained with lots of regular darkspawn blood and magic.

[zute]

Okay, perhaps it is another one of those ambiguities because Riordan specifically says the archdemon blood is necessary to do the Joining. He can't immediately start making more GW's after you find him because the archdemon blood was taken by Loghain from the Grey Warden cache (so he says). But I suppose it could be the dragon's body after the archdemon has fled into another body. Must be the taint remains behind.

I assume Loghain located the archdemon blood in his sock drawer after you defeat him at the Landsmeet.

[onemorealtmer]

It could be that archdemon blood is necessary for Riordan to do the Joining on anyone, because there's no one handy in Ferelden who knows the right woo to do it with darkspawn blood.

[darkrose]

I assume Loghain located the archdemon blood in his sock drawer after you defeat him at the Landsmeet.

For some reason, this is absolutely hilarious to me. I now have this mental image of Loghain, having been conscripted, digging through his dresser going, "Shit! I know I put it in here somewhere!"

[zute]

Isn't that where everyone keeps their archdemon blood? :)

[elysium_fic]

Back of the liquor cabinet, maybe?

[varelishawt]

I've always wondered how they hell they preserved archdemon blood when the last Blight was four centuries ago... Just add water and stir?

[zute]

Lots of salt? :)

Maybe they used magic to preserve it.

[aithne]

I'm thinking magic.

Though there is the frightening possibility that archdemon blood is just so damn magical anyway that it doesn't decay like you'd think blood would.

[varelishawt]

I'm skeptical of this... if the archdemon is such a magical creature (I'm not saying it's not), why don't the mages sense it like the Wardens do, only in a different way (they see the ripples in the Fade or something).

[sleepyowlet]

"A disturbance in the Fade, I sense. Vigiliant we must be. If underestimate the power of the Darkspawn we do, doomed all will be."

*snicker*

Sorry, no offence... but that made me laugh. Yeah, it's never explained in the game what mages do and do not sense. How does one know a person is a mage? Perhaps they would sense the Archdemon nearby, if somebody had the sense to let them leave the tower? Perhaps Mages don't sense anything at all (only Wynne, since she's one with a Spirit) - if they'd be able to sense magic, wouldn't they also know a Bloodmage, if they'd come across one? As it seems they don't, since people suspect that Jowan's one of those, but nobody seems to know for sure.
Maybe Archdemon blood is needed if a non-Mage Warden wants to prepare the Joining, but a mage might be able to concentrate the Taint in normal Darkspawn blood? That might explain why Duncan sends you to collect three vials of the stuff - perhaps he has Bendrik do the preparations? And since Riordan is on his own without a Warden mage, he needs the Archdemon blood.

[seredine]

This was always what I wondered too!