Return to Ostagar

Return to Ostagar is downloadable content for Dragon Age: Origins. It alllows the Warden to return to the first battlefield of Ostagar where the Grey Wardens were nearly wiped out by the darkspawn. There, they can find out more about King Cailan's and Loghain's agendas, recover Cailan's Arms and Armor. It also provides another opportunity to recruit Dog.

Background
The memories of the battle of Ostagar have haunted the surviving Grey Wardens in Ferelden. It laid waste to their order and claimed the lives of many great men and women.

Now, there are rumors that a fellow survivor of the battle has escaped from captivity and is seeking the Grey Wardens' help. The time has come for the Grey Wardens to make their return to Ostagar and exact their revenge upon the darkspawn. Players will discover King Cailan's top-secret political agenda and go behind enemy lines to revisit a place that many feared had been lost to history.

A King's Confidant
Once past Lothering, The Warden is able to travel to Bann Loren's Lands. There, they can meet a member of King Cailan's honour guard. He will explain that he left the key to the King's chest, containing Maric's Blade and Secret Correspondence, hidden by a statue in Ostagar, and that Cailan wanted the Grey Wardens to have the key in the event of his death.

Return to Ostagar
The darkspawn now have the run of Ostagar, and pieces of Cailan's Armor Set have been appropriated by various higher-ranking darkspawn. Collect the armor set, Maric's Blade and Cailan's Shield, and decide what to do about the king's remains. Along the way, fight the Ogre that killed Cailan, and retrieve Duncan's Dagger and Duncan's Sword from its body.

Items
The following items are available in this downloadable content and may be found in Ostagar.

, the set of armor once worn by King Cailan Theirin , a set of arms once wielded by King Cailan Theirin, consisting of Cailan's Shield and Maric's Blade

, a dagger once wielded by Duncan in his off hand , a longsword once wielded by Duncan in his sword hand

Codex Entries

 * Codex Entry: Cailan's Documents - Page 1 of 3
 * Codex Entry: Cailan's Documents - Page 1 of 3
 * Codex Entry: Cailan's Documents - Page 1 of 3
 * Codex Entry: Return to Ostagar - Credits

January 5th
Although it was announced that it would be available on the 5th of January 2010 for PC and XBox with the PS3 version shipping later, Chris Priestly of Bioware posted a short notice on the official forums announcing it would be delayed.

Fernando Melo later clarified the reason for delay, stating "Literally, at the last minute, we spotted something... serious enough that we felt it impacted the quality [of the DLC] and we made the choice to delay it to give our fans the best experience with it."

January 13th
On the 13th of January, 2010 Chris Priestly announced that "Return to Ostagar is now unexpectedly available for the Xbox 360. We will be making the PC version available later today and will have the PS3 version available later." . However, later the same day the title was pulled from XBox Live after a new bug that caused specializations to be lost was discovered.

The Xbox 360 download was pulled off of the XBL Marketplace as the update that came before it re-locked all unlocked specializations for any new playthroughs, and any specializations on old completed playthroughs that aren't actively used by that particular character. Meaning, for example, Oghren will still have Beserker and whatever else you gave him unlocked and Alistar will have Templar and whatever else unlocked, but neither will have anything else.

A new update has now been released, fixing the specialization bug and re-unlocking them if they were locked by the bug. (This update also fixed the Recruiter achievement glitch, possibly more.)

January 29th
Return to Ostagar was re-released on the XBox 360 and released on the PC. A PS3 release date is still pending.

See news article for more information and links to the official BioWare announcements.

Bugs

 * The initial release of Return to Ostagar had a major bug where all specializations would be removed. A new update has now been released, fixing the specialization bug and re-unlocking them if they were locked by the bug. (This update also fixed the Recruiter achievement glitch, possibly more.)

FAQ
 Can you still play Return to Ostagar after saving redcliffe and how?

 Prior to the epilogue at any point of the game, you can Return to Ostagar by travelling to an Area in your map called "Bann Loren's Land" and that will activate the Quest that will allow you to go back to Ostagar. After the epilogue, there is an automatic Post-Campaign save that allows you to play any DLC that you haven't already completed.

 Can the Return to Ostagar DLC be played after you killed the Archdemon? My last save is during the Post Coronation Ceremony at the Palace and whenever I leave the door the Credits shows up. I cannot return to any other places?

 Prior to the epilogue at any point of the game, you can Return to Ostagar by travelling to an Area in your map called "Bann Loren's Land" and that will activate the Quest that will allow you to go back to Ostagar. After the epilogue, there is an automatic Post-Campaign save that allows you to play any DLC that you haven't already completed.

 If Alistair is already made King, will he still come with me to do the Return to Ostagar (Quest)?

 Yes. So will Morrigan, despite the fact that she bails on you (either before or after the final battle). So will Loghain (or Alistair) if you sacrificed them to kill the Archdemon. Darksnow217 17:36, January 23, 2010 (UTC). So that would be a good opportunity for everyone to liquidate all your party assets, convert everything into Gold before they all leave for good when The Awakening comes. Your party inventory will be in post-coronation state, i.e. you will have the loot you picked up when fighting your way through Fort Drakon, and you will have lost potions and other one-time use items you used in the final fight.

 After the coronation, will town NPCs react differently if you are a King of Ferelden, or they will still call you a Grey Warden as if you haven't already killed the Archdemon?

 In the post-campaign gameplay, you can only access the Party Camp and the DLC areas. Chronologically, it takes place just before the battle of Denerim. In other words, you go back in time to before your coronation (if you were made king), before you killed the Archdemon, and before Morrigan left your party. However, since it takes place after the Landsmeet, Alistair will not be available if you chose to let Loghain live.

 Prior to the Landsmeet, will completing the Return to Ostagar quest give you more dialogue options during the Landsmeet debate?

 As far as the 360 version goes, no, there are no additional dialogue choices for the Landsmeet.