The Warden

The Warden is the player character protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins. The Warden can come from one of a wide spectrum of Ferelden's social strata, from the lowliest castes of dwarves and elves to the height of dwarven royalty and human nobility. After playing one of six unique origins, the Warden will join the Grey Wardens and deal with the deadly threats facing the land of Ferelden.

Character Creation
You will begin by selecting the Warden's gender, race (human, elf or dwarf), and class (warrior, rogue or mage), though the mage class is not available to dwarves. You can then choose an origin from whatever origins are available, before choosing a first name, customizing your character's appearance, taking your character’s portrait and choosing a soundeset. Next, you select what attributes and skills your character will possess. If you are playing as a warrior or rogue, you will then select your character’s talents. If you are playing as a mage, you will select your character’s spells. Finally, you select your preferred difficulty level and your story begins.

Surname
While the player can select the first name of the character freely, each origin has a set surname:


 * Human Noble: Cousland
 * Human Mage: Amell
 * Elf Mage: Surana
 * City Elf: Tabris
 * Dalish Elf: Mahariel
 * Dwarf Noble: Aeducan
 * Dwarf Commoner: Brosca

Starting Abilities
Each character begins the adventure with two specific skills and one talent or spell already known. Additionally, one skill and two talents or spells are chosen at character creation. The free starting abilities depend on class and origin.

Warrior Rogue
 * All warriors get one point in Combat Training. The second skill and the free talent depend on the origin.
 * Dalish Elf: Survival, Pinning Shot
 * City Elf: Coercion, Dual-Weapon Sweep
 * Dwarf Commoner: Stealing, Dual-Weapon Sweep
 * Human Noble and Dwarf Noble: Improved Combat Training, Shield Bash
 * All rogues get Poison-Making and Dirty Fighting. The second free skill depends on the origin:
 * Dalish Elf: Survival.
 * City Elf: Coercion.
 * Dwarf Commoner: Stealing.
 * Human Noble and Dwarf Noble: Combat Training.

Mage
 * Mages start with Herbalism, Combat Tactics, and Arcane Bolt.

Story


After the origin story is played out, the player is sought out by Duncan, the leader of Ferelden's recently reformed Grey Wardens, to join them and aid King Cailan Theirin and his troops against an upcoming army of darkspawn in Ostagar. This is where the main plot of Dragon Age: Origins will begin. The Warden's main task is to gather an army to defeat the Blight. However, they must also deal with political tensions threatening to distract the country from the impending Blight.

The actions of the Player Character are entirely decided by you, the player. But unlike many other cRPGs, your choices are not tracked by a single meter or bar, rather each of your party members have their own meter that reflects how they feel about your actions.

Level
As is typical for roleplaying games, a character's level will display the progress of the character's career and personal power. When your character levels up, certain things are automatically increased (health and stamina/mana), while other things (talents and attributes) must be manually increased, unless Autolevel is activated. It is possible to reach an end level of 25 for the main campaign and current available DLC. But it is presumed that later DLC or possibly Expansions will lead to a raise in the level "cap", though as it stands there is no hard cap on leveling. This "end level" also cannot be exceeded by cheats or glitches, as tested earlier.

Equipment
Player characters have the following equipment slots: Additionally, there is a toggle to switch between two weapon sets.

The Archivist Belt can only be worn by the Warden. It grands an additional 25 EXP for every codex entry discovered by the player, for a total of 75 EXP each.

Quotes

 * "Do not look a gift Grey Warden in the mouth."
 * "Warden senses tingling."
 * "Ugh... I was hoping for a challenge" (when encountering Darkspawn with the "cocky" voice)

Dialogue

 * Alistair: "One good thing about the blight is how it brings people together."
 * Warden: "You are a very strange man."

--


 * Morrigan: "'Tis cold in my tent, all alone..."
 * Warden: "Then get a thicker blanket."

--


 * Janar: "You made a hole in my wall!"
 * Warden: "Yes. You should get it fixed."

--


 * Carta Doorkeeper: "What's the password?"
 * Warden: "Uh... I don't know. No wait I remember. Die scum!"

--


 * Nevin: "Afternoon, stranger. You looking for a stool to share a brew?"
 * Warden: "You looking for a fist to share your face?"

--


 * Sten: "You are a Grey Warden. So it follows that you can't be a woman."
 * Warden: "Why not?"
 * Sten: "Women are priests, artisans, shopkeepers, or farmers. They don't fight."
 * Warden: "That's not a universal truth. Some women fight."
 * Sten: "Why would women ever wish to be men? That makes no sense."
 * Warden: "They don't wish to be men. They wish to be women who fight."
 * Sten: "Do they also wish to live on the moon? That's as attainable."
 * Warden: "I'm a woman, and I'm fighting."
 * Sten: "One of those things can't be true. A person is born: qunari, or human, or elven, or dwarf. He doesn't choose that. The size of his hands, whether he is clever or foolish, the land he comes from, the color of his hair. These are beyond his control. We do not choose, we simply are."
 * Warden: "But a person can choose what to do."
 * Sten: "Can they? We'll see."