Freemen of the Dales

"No crown, no nobles, no Inquisition!"

The Freemen of the Dales

Background
"I may no longer fight for the empress, but I still fight for Orlais. There is a rebel group gathering in the Emerald Graves forest. People like me: tired, wanting a change. I met some of them; it feels... right. There is something big planned. To take the Dales, to wipe out the old politics."

When the Orlesian Civil War broke out, a number of the Imperial Army soldiers deserted. Some did not want to fight their own countrymen, whilst others initially took part in the war, but left when they got tired of brother taking arms against brother, or when they suffered loses at the hands of their once comrades.

The Elder One used the chaos surrounding the Mage-Templar War, as well as the civil war, and made the deserters into pawns in his master plan. His agents infiltrated the group and provided resources and funding for them, whilst encouraging them to take up arms against the supporters of both Celene and Gaspard. Either by their own initiative, or bu Elder One's agents', the deserters decided to take the Dales from Orlais to call it their own, independent land. Thus, the Freemen of the Dales were born.

The Freemen took residence at the Villa Maurel in the Emerald Graves. There, they found books on elven glyphs located at the elven ruins of Exalted Plains. Certain it would lead to locating an ancient elven weapon, some of the Freemen dedicated themselves to finding and decoding the meaning of these glyphs, whilst the rest remained in the forest surrounding the villa, coming into conflict with the refugees.

Structure
True to its name, the Freemen have no rulers. Instead, the group is governed by independent branches, each lead by a different person. Each of these branches is operated differently and is guided by different values.

The group operates across the Emerald Graves and the Exalted Plains. Commander Duhaime openly attacks war refugees, whilst Sister Costeau attacks only in self defence. Auguste is recruiting new members and operates from a lodge in the middle of the Emerald Graves, whilst Maliphant made a deal with the Red Templars, unknowing that they separated from the Templar Order; whereas Gordian openly leads attacks on the Imperial Army in the Exalted Plains by using blood magic and demon-binding in order to weaken the warring cousins' manpower.

Involvement
Fairbanks contacts the Inquisition and requests protection against the Freemen of the Dales. When the Inquisitor sees him at his refugee camp, Fairbanks states that the rebels are in cahoots with the Red Templars. It can also be learned at the the refugee camp that some of the refugees have been either killed or taken by the Freemen recently.

The Inquisitor can investigate. It will eventually lead to Duhaime, a Venatori, and Maliphant, who is located inside the Villa Maurel. It comes out that Maliphant did offer support of the Freemen to the Red Templars, but he did not do it knowingly, as he did not know they were a splinter group of the true Templar Order. He agreed to give the templars his men in exchange for funding, however, he realised his mistake before he confronted the Inquisition. Both Duhaime and Maliphant are killed by the Inquisitor.

Following the clue about the recently missing refugees, the Inquisitor and their party arrive at a nearby Veridium mine, where they find out that Sister Costeau did imprison the refugees, but she did it becausethey were stealing from her. Costeau is killed.

In order for Fairbanks to become an Inquisition agent, the last leader of the Freemen must be defeated; a Chevalier by the name of Auguste. Once he lies dead, Fairbanks promises his contacts to Inquisition and is acquired as an agent.

Over in the Exalted Plains, the Inquisitior finds out that it was the Freemen who are responsible for the resurrection of the dead, and one of their leaders, a mage named Gordian, in particular. Once the Inquisition deals with him, they can focus on restoring the Exalted Plains to normality.

Known Freemen

 * Auguste, a deserted Chevalier, and one of the leaders of the Emerald Graves branch.
 * Benji
 * Costeaus, a once Chantry sister and one of the leaders of the Emerald Graves branch.
 * Emery
 * Duhaime, a commander of the Venatori, Elder One's agent, and one of the leaders of the Emerald Graves branch, as well as an agent for the Venatori.
 * Gael
 * Gordian, the leader of the Exalted Plains branch.
 * Gus
 * Hugh
 * Jocelyne
 * Maliphant, a desterted soldier, and one of the leaders of the Emerald Graves branch.
 * Pascal
 * Phyllydia

Rogues

 * Infiltrator (Double Daggers)
 * Sniper (Archer)
 * Archer

Warriors

 * Veteran (One-handed Sword)
 * Captain (Mace and Tower Shield)
 * Soldier (One-handed Sword)
 * Guardsman (Mace and Tower Shield)

Trivia

 * Outside of the the scattered groups of leaderless Freemen, who are hostile to the Inquisition, only Duhaime's and Gordian's, both agents of the Elder One, are actually enemies the Inquisition by default. The rest of the Freemen groups lead by Maliphant, Costeau, and Auguste attack the Inquisition in self defence due to confusion. However, there is no option to resolve the conflict peacefully.