Anders

"The people fear what we can do, but to use that fear to bludgeon us into submission is wrong! And they do it with our blessing!"

Anders is an apostate mage determined to escape the Circle of Magi and the templars, with whom he has developed a rather antagonistic relationship. Nothing they have done to him has dampened his desire for personal freedom. He has a deep affinity for the downtrodden and underprivileged, and for cats. He is a potential companion in both Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening and Dragon Age II, in which he is a romance option for Hawke.

Background
Anders real name is unknown. His nickname refers to the fact that his family is from Anderfels. When he started to exhibit magical abilities and set the barn on fire, his father grew afraid of him. At the age of twelve he was taken by the templars to the Ferelden Circle Tower, which he despised and compared to a prison. He made at least seven and at most dozens attempts to escape the tower, each time being returned and punished by the templars. First Enchanter Irving believed that Anders, however reckless, posed no true threat. Anders' next-to-last escape earned him a year of solitary confinement, in which the only company he had most days was the tower's mouser, Mr Wiggums. The last time he managed to run away was prior to Uldred's uprising.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
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The Warden-Commander first encounters Anders during the opening quest to regain Vigil's Keep. Prior to the darkspawn attack, the Templars had brought Anders to the Keep after having recaptured him after his latest escape from the Circle. The Warden-Commander finds him surrounded by dead darkspawn and Templars, although he claims not to have killed the Templars. At this point, the Warden-Commander can ask him to join the group, and he will do so.

Alternatively, the Warden-Commander can let him escape but will still have a chance to recruit him later on the rooftop of Vigil's Keep. He will be found spying on the Withered and Seneschal Varel. At this point, he'll warn the Warden-Commander about the danger ahead and confess that he came back because he wanted to help defend people against the darkspawn.

Once the keep is secured, the Templar Rylock will come on the scene wanting to arrest Anders on a trumped up murder charge, claiming he killed the Templars who had been guarding him. The Warden-Commander can then either use the Right of Conscription to make Anders a Grey Warden and therefore immune to any further prosecution by the Templars. Or the Warden-Commander can allow the Templars to take Anders back into custody. If Alistair was made king in Origins, he will be present and will overrule Rylock’s objection.

During Anders’ companion quest, the Warden-Commander will have another confrontation with Rylock and will again have the choice of keeping him in the Grey Wardens or letting the Templars take him. This time, however, if the Warden-Commander chooses to side with Anders, the Templars will turn hostile and have to be killed.

If the Warden-Commander sides with Anders, they will be in a cutscene after the fighting and another when the party returns to the Throne Room. During these conversations, the Warden-Commander will have an opportunity to either improve or downgrade the relationship with Anders.

Epilogue
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 * If left to defend the Keep, Anders will be hailed a hero by the few survivors of Vigil's Keep by using his magic to hold off hundreds of darkspawn. He gets invited by the men to engage in a drinking contest. He loses.
 * Anders will remain with the Grey Wardens to train the Order's next generation of mages. When he is called by the Circle of Magi to deliver a lecture on the nature of the Architect - much to the templars' dismay - he tells the Commander of the Grey that his time with the Order is over. However, not two months later, he returns and the Wardens remain his home and lasting companions.
 * If Anders' companion quest was not completed, he will be recaptured after resigning from the Wardens. With his phylactery secure, he will be unable to evade the templars. After two subsequent escape attempts, he will vanish for a third and final time.
 * If left to defend the Keep without enough upgrades to it, he is found dead with an arrow through his neck with hundreds of darkspawn dead in a circle around him; none were touched with a blade, but all were felled by magic.
 * No longer a part of the Wardens, the Chantry brands him an apostate, but never captures him. He is last seen on a pirate ship with a familiar woman. This possibly references the companion Isabela in Dragon Age II.

Romance
Anders is a romance option for both genders. If Hawke is male, he will mention that Karl was his "first." If Hawke is female, he does not mention Karl romantically. Hawke can announce interest in Anders after his personal quest, much to his surprise. Anders will say he should "check a looking glass more often." If Hawke chooses the 'good' dialogue options over the romantic ones, Anders will flirt with Hawke, and then apologise and berate himself.

Friendship and rivalry
Friendship with Anders can generally be earned by siding with the mages or by being agreeable to him in conversation, or by directly confronting demons and blood mages.

Rivalry with Anders can generally be earned by siding with the templars or the Circle or by refusing to champion the oppressed or enslaved.

Dragon Age II
Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Dragon Age II

 * The Tevinter Chantry Amulet can be found during the quest A Bitter Pill

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Class: Mage

Specialization: Spirit Healer

Skills: Herbalism, Runecrafting, Improved Combat Tactics, Clarity

Starting Talents:

Mage: Arcane Bolt, Arcane Shield

Spirit Healer: Group Heal, Revival, Lifeward

Primal: Winter's Grasp, Frost Weapons, Cone of Cold

Creation: Heal, Heroic Offense

Spirit: Walking Bomb, Mind Blast

Entropy: Weakness, Paralyze, Drain Life

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Initial gear

Anders specific gear

Dragon Age II
Anders' armor upgrades can be found at the following locations:


 * Act 2: Armor Struts, purchased at Lirene's Fereldan Imports in Lowtown. Increases armor.
 * Act 2: Lyrium Weave, purchased at Mage Goods in the Gallows Courtyard. Increases attack.
 * Act 2: Spirit Essence, found during the Dissent quest. After killing Ser Alrik, search the nearby dead end chambers just west of the exit before leaving the area. +10% magic resistance.
 * Act 3: Sigil of the Mage Underground, found during the Best Served Cold quest. Extra rune slot.

After completing his companion quest Justice during Act 3, he will change into a black version of his Renegade's coat. Entering into a romance with him ultimately has no factor in this.

Anders specific gear , requires Mage Item Pack 1 DLC. , requires Legacy DLC. , requires Mage Item Pack 2 DLC. , requires Mark of the Assassin DLC.

Plot skills
As the player befriends Anders and gains his approval, he will gain additional skills in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening:

Dialogue points
Below are the spots where the player can initiate dialogue with Anders in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. (On the PC, it can be hard to find the correct spot to click; make sure to hit "tab" and rotate the camera if it's not letting you click on it.)


 * Vigil's Keep: The statue of Andraste in the middle of the courtyard.
 * Kal'Hirol - Trade Quarter: A basket of lyrium at the far end of the forge area (where the repair anvil is)
 * City of Amaranthine: A pine tree on the left side of the path just before the first gate.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

 * "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools."
 * "Maker's breath, kitty. What have you been eating?"
 * "After my seventh escape attempt, you think they'd have given me credit for trying."
 * "Magic isn't for your amusement! Why don't I just do a little dance? Anders' Spicy Shimmy?"
 * (Upon being removed from party) "Andraste's knicker-weasels!"

Dragon Age II

 * (To Hawke and party upon first meeting) "I have made this place a sanctum of healing and salvation! Why do you threaten it?"
 * "Since when is Justice happy? Justice is righteous. Justice is hard."
 * "Ten years, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you, and there will be no templars to tear them apart."
 * (To Bartrand, after he inquires about the Deep Roads maps) "A wizard did it."
 * (Entering the Blooming Rose brothel) If someone here tries to hire me again I'm leaving.
 * (Shouted in battle) "Suck on a fireball!"
 * (Shouted in battle) "I'll show you why mages are feared!"
 * (Reviving after a fight) "Even my bruises have bruises."
 * (To Hawke's dog) "Be a real pet! Ignore me until you want something and then sit on my head."
 * (Upon arriving at the Dalish camp) "In my experience, all Dalish women are crazy."
 * "Andraste's flaming knickers!"
 * (During The Last Straw) "I removed the chance of compromise, because there is no compromise."
 * (During The Last Straw) "The people fear what we can do, but to use that fear to bludgeon us into submission is wrong! And they do it with our blessing!"

Trivia

 * David Gaider wrote Anders in Awakening, while Jennifer Hepler took over the role for Dragon Age II.
 * Jennifer Hepler penned a short story to accompany the game, which focuses around the mage's possession by Justice.
 * Jennifer Hepler describes the choice of keeping Anders alive as "poetic justice", as he would have to face and suffer the knowledge of the lives he took. She also states her belief that he wishes death so the people that he inevitably kills receives proper justice as well.
 * Though he uses a fire spell when you first meet him in Awakening, he does not have the spell when he joins your party.
 * If Anders specializes in Blood Magic, the player can have another additional line of dialogue with Anders when speaking about Anders' past with the templars. When Anders remarks there really isn't much of a reason to arrest him, the Warden can point out that Anders is an actual blood mage now, to which Anders will laugh.
 * "Anders" is a common name in Scandinavia, equivalent to the English name Andrew, and derived from the Ancient Greek word andros, meaning "human" or "man." In modern Dutch and modern German, anders means "different," but this is purely by chance, since both words come a completely different origin.
 * In the library in the Circle of Magi during the Witch Hunt DLC one can find some old notes left in a book in which a young mage made sketches in the margins of Templars being eaten by a tiger named "Ser Pounce-a-lot". (Since that mage is Anders, he subsequently names the kitten given to him in Awakening Ser Pounce-a-lot.)
 * In the Fade (Dragon Age II), when Justice take complete control, the passive spell Vengeance is active whether or not you have assigned it to Anders.
 * The mage Finn reveals through dialogue that Anders once escaped the Circle of Magi by swimming across Lake Calenhad during a weekly training exercise for the apprentices. He was caught again one week later.