9 Things That Makes The Warden The Best Hero Of Dragon Age

Highlights

• The Warden’s origin impacts Thedas for generations to come, shaping how elves, dwarves, and even royalty are perceived.
• The Joining is a brutal choice with long-term consequences, but the Warden’s sacrifice may secure a noble legacy that transcends death.
• Origins offers diverse romances and friendships alongside deep dives into Thedas’s cultures, with each Warden offering a unique gameplay experience.

The Hero of Ferelden is the legendary first hero of Dragon Age, a Grey Warden whose mantle many players don to this day. This first game’s popularity is well-founded: Origins is a story that has something new to offer for gamers looking for a highly replayable dark fantasy. This game paved the way for RPGs in many respects, not the least of which is how much of the Warden’s character is up to players, and what kind of hardships and relationships shape a person.

The unique build of Origins allows players to roleplay saintly or vicious Wardens and goes above and beyond with the unique way it establishes the Warden’s backstory. Although the story of Origins is epic enough with its focus on the Fifth Blight, it’s also about all the friends, enemies, and secrets the Warden meets on this journey. As gory as it is witty, this game is a dark hero’s tale unlike any before it that’s certain to delight any who gives it a chance.

1 Fate Is A Bloody Thing

Respecting & Joining The Wardens Are Worlds Apart

• The six unique origins all leave players with an impression of how important the Order of the Grey Wardens is before they are invited to Join.
• Each story leading up to Ostagar is significantly different for each origin & lays the groundwork for why it’s destined to be.
• The Warden is not a Chosen One in the classic sense but is a leader among the “lucky” survivors of a grim reality.

While there are elements of The Chosen One trope in Origins, it does the dark fantasy genre proud by painting the hero’s role as both necessary and deeply unenviable. Many Thedasians admire the Order, but the Joining is often fatal, and its brutal effects are for life.

Players take up the mantle of the hero not because they’re reluctantly forced to by a superior or because of some ancient prophecy. It’s a question of life or death, and the heroic circumstance is that no one else is there to get the job done.

2 A Legacy For Future Heroes

The Warden’s Background Has Long-Term Social Implications

• The Warden’s origin can change how Thedasians talk about elves & dwarves in future Dragon Age games.
• The Warden can become a royal with the right bloodline.

The Inquisitor’s origin impacts how players roleplay their character accepting their role, and Hawke’s class significantly impacts how Dragon Age 2 unfolds. The Warden, however, has the unique option to forge a legacy based on which origin players choose.

All the origins are offered certain choices, such as the Dark Ritual, but some endgame results and several future references are directly tied to specific origins. While this won’t change the plot of Origins or subsequent games, it does change how the world remembers the Warden.

3 The Taint Has Upsides

Dreaming With An Archdemon Is Great For Strategy But Not Sanity

• Wardens can sense darkspawn before they appear, a distinction which is visualized on the minimap.
• Only the Wardens are safe from the Taint killing them or turning them into ghouls, but their immunity comes at a long-term price.

The darkspawn and the archdemons are among the most fascinating denizens of Thedas, and their unnatural origin is a point of fascination for players. As a Warden, players are naturally encouraged to learn more about some of the deepest mysteries of Thedas.

How darkspawn organize and propagate, and their lost history, is relevant to defeating them but thanks to Blights and politics, the Order is not in great shape when it comes to disseminating relevant information. It’s up to the Warden to learn from every encounter.

4 No Thaigs Unturned

No One Else Can Forage Into Darkspawn Territory Like A Warden

• Only the Legion of the Dead, darkspawn, & Grey Wardens go so deep into the Deep Roads, & only Wardens sometimes return.

This may not be every origin character’s ideal future, but the Warden certainly has the combat advantage in overrun and forgotten ruins, especially in the Deep Roads. Ancient thaigs are full of lost history, and there’s the matter of learning more about darkspawn.

The information the Warden gathers is perpetually relevant to Thedas so long as darkspawn and archdemons exist. The difference between the Hero of Ferelden and other members of the Order is mainly location and opportunity, but the contribution is no less valuable for players curious about this dark mystery.

5 A Hero For Noble Sacrifice

The Warden Can Die For The Cause

• Dying is optional & can be circumvented with the right choices.
• The ultimate sacrifice ending is designed to be especially fitting for some roleplay paths, but any can choose it in the end.
• Even if the Warden survives, the Joining involves sacrificing decades of life & the likelihood of having children.

If the Warden is the one to land the killing blow and the Dark Ritual is ignored, Origins offers the grimmest ending as an option for players who want their Warden to go out with style. The Hero of Ferelden will be remembered appropriately if players choose this ending.

Not every hero’s tale has to be tragic, but it certainly has an angsty appeal for players who wish to explore themes of noble self-sacrifice, especially those roleplaying devout and selfless Andrastians or rude survivors who only intend on living long enough to save everyone.

6 Rebuilding The Wardens

The Wardens Went The Way Of The Orlesians In Ferelden

• The Warden’s work is uniquely vital & inevitable.
• Although the Inquisitor’s importance is comparable, the Warden isn’t handed an organization.
• Loghain, King Cailan’s general, still remembers a time before the Wardens returned to Ferelden, as revealed in The Calling by David Gaider.

The Inquisition is impressive, and Hawke can also excel in leadership if the player so chooses. With the Warden, however, players have a bad situation foisted on them, and instead of guidance, it’s up to them to build the Order’s presence in a hostile land.

Although King Cailan himself proves to be a fan of the Grey Wardens, not every noble and commander subscribes to the necessity of the Wardens having a presence in Ferelden. The organization’s two-hundred-year exile only came to an end after King Maric, Cailan’s father, brought them back.

7 Companions For The Ages

Origins Is The Game That Got Diverse Romances Noticed

• Before BioWare, LGBTQ+ romances weren’t openly acknowledged in RPG games.
• Origins is not a dating sim, but its relationships are quite compelling.
• Origins also stands out for its stellar friendship arcs.

Dragon Age is wildly famous for its companion lineup for many reasons, from party banter to its salacious encounters. Origins proved there’s a strong market for fleshed-out RPGs with diverse romances.

While the romances are excellent, there’s far more to what makes the Warden’s experience so rewarding. Origins also excels at portraying strong platonic bonds. Some of the Warden’s friendships are iconic precisely because their design didn’t include romance.

8 The Many Faces Of Thedas

Six Origins & As Many Cultures

• The Warden’s diverse backgrounds have unique stories & multiple quests.
• The origins represent significant hours of gameplay that set the tone for the rest of the game in a novel way.
• Playing a different Warden is one of the biggest replayability draws of Origins.

Origins is true to its name and starts as a completely different game with every origin. These aren’t simply different flavors of the same quest, either. Every Warden has a different reason for joining the Order, and meanwhile, players get a glimpse into very different layers of Thedasian cultures.

The unchosen potential Wardens are all scripted into the game as well, although only the character chosen by the player survives their origin. This lends Origins an unprecedented continuity in weaving together the disparate timelines of who the Hero of Ferelden could have been.

9 Darkspawn Expert

No Other Warden Has Seen Quite This Much

• The Warden encounters Sophia Dryden & Avernus in the Soldier’s Peak DLC.
• The Warden encounters darkspawn of all sizes, broodmothers, ghouls, and an archdemon, and optionally survives to go on to become Warden-Commander at Vigil’s Keep & meets self-aware darkspawn.
• The Architect in the Awakening DLC reveals fascinating details hitherto only speculated on by Wardens.

Much is learned about the Blights and darkspawn in Origins, and a lot of the field research legwork is thanks to the Warden’s efforts. The lack of useful information goes further back than Loghain rejecting the Order’s presence in Ferelden, and as players will learn, this knowledge is the difference between life and death.

Despite the political issues, it’s clear that the threat that the Grey Wardens stand against is very real, and not even Loghain argues that. The Order’s presence anywhere may be historically fraught, but the Grey Wardens at Weisshaupt would do well to be half as intrepid or as impressive as the Hero of Ferelden, and players experiencing this epic comeback will find themselves inexorably invested in Dragon Age.