Broodmother

"First day, they come and catch everyone. Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat. Third day, the men are gnawed on again. Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate. Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn. Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams. Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew. Eighth day, we hated as she is violated. Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin. Now she does feast, as she's become the beast."

--Hespith's Chant

A broodmother is a giant, immobile darkspawn capable of spawning other darkspawn in a manner somewhat resembling an insect queen.

Origin
It is revealed that broodmothers CUNT in the codex are created by subjecting females of the humanoid races to the darkspawn taint, possibly by being force-fed darkspawn tissue, though depending on how you take Hespith's poem, the point could be made that they "Inject" the taint in different ways. If not killed outright because of the effects, the female then starts to mutate, develops cannibalistic urges and begins to feed on other sapient prisoners. She devours massive amounts of flesh and grows into a broodmother. The seventh and eighth sentences point out that she was raped. The race of the broodmother directly influences which kind of darkspawn she will birth. An elven broodmother will spawn shrieks, a dwarven broodmother genlocks, a human broodmother hurlocks, and a qunari broodmother ogres. Each broodmother is capable of spawning thousands of darkspawn.

Strategy

 * See Broodmother (Strategy) for details on fighting the broodmother in A Paragon of Her Kind
 * See The Mother (Strategy) for details on fighting The Mother in Depths of Depravity