Talk:The Warden

New title
Usually the PC ingame has a name they are usually referred to as such (i.e grey warden recruit, or the lone wanderer from f3) so I am thinking I will move this page to a new title when we find out (probably when we acquire the game). --Selty 06:51, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Screenshots
Also, just a heads up when we get some PC creation film and/or screens, I will be putting it up. --Selty 04:20, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

There are some more high-res screenshots on this German site if you're interested. Some close-ups, nothing spectacular, I guess. MyNickIsTakenSoIUseThisOne 21:13, 10 August 2009 (UTC) -- Alexander


 * Haha. You didn't bother to look at the article, did you, Alex? :)
 * -- Xavier Grimwand on Monday, August 10, 2009 @ 9:35 pm (ET)

Huh? Do you mean the Russian pictures? That's why I wrote "some more", not so much but at least a bit different. Was just a suggestion. Other than that, I probably missed the point, yup. ^^ MyNickIsTakenSoIUseThisOne 17:06, 11 August 2009 (UTC) -- Alexander

Gender
I heard somewhere (think it might have been early press releases) that the PC would be male only. Seeing it listed here as unisex I was just wondering if new info had arisen? RabidStoat 16:43, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
 * You might be thinking of a different game. Dragon Age has never restricted gender, that I am aware of. Regardless, all players may freely choose their character's gender on the generation screen.
 * -- Xavier Grimwand on Thursday, July 9, 2009 @ 6:05 pm (ET)

Rank
If there are questions, please discuss on this talk page, not in the summary. MyNickIsTakenSoIUseThisOne 23:41, 24 August 2009 (UTC) -- Alexander

I deleted it for a reason; rank is not something that the PC has, and should not be featured in the PC page. NPC page, yes, along with some more information perhaps (if available), but the player character will NOT have a "rank". EDIT: Ah, sorry, just wasn't sure if you understood. No offense meant. Marik333 23:46, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Cool, my last entry on this talk page hasn't been saved because you were writing at the same time. Didn't notice. Thanks for your correction. I also found Mary's post contradicting with Georg's explanation about the rank, so I reverted my last entry. I assumed Georg writing that there is something called RANK_PLAYER, was obvious. Seems I was wrong. MyNickIsTakenSoIUseThisOne 00:24, 25 August 2009 (UTC) -- Alexander

Clarification is up, by DavidSims. The PC has a rank but it's basically considered fix. So it's all good with Marik's suggestion to move it to the NPCs. Sorry if I sounded hostile - didn't intended to. I just had the opinion that clarification was needed. The decision to remove it first was right anyway. Thumbs up. MyNickIsTakenSoIUseThisOne 22:44, 25 August 2009 (UTC) -- Alexander

Level?
It's not 1 to 20 is it?--Selty 06:56, September 5, 2009 (UTC)

The hard cap is still unknown, probably level 99 or so. Lots of room for expansions, heh. The character is expected to finish around level 18 to 22 in the official campaign. MyNickIsTakenSoIUseThisOne 07:12, September 5, 2009 (UTC) -- Alexander


 * I've changed it to "unknown". I read in the GameBanshee article that there it is no hard level cap and I suspect the level descriptions will go from character info-boxes anyway, so hopefully that will suffice. Loleil 07:25, September 5, 2009 (UTC)


 * Has anyone actually reached 20+ levels? I wonder because... seeing as the game seems to adjust depending on your level I am surprised there isn't a cap at the lower-end to prevent you from having all abilities from a single class.  Any way to confirm this via cheats in the PC version (Level your self to 20 then see if you have an XP bar)?

I have reached level 22 with a character so breaking Level 20 is very possible. I think even with current DLC though, reaching Level 25 would be a very difficult thing to do. I did roughly 90% of the side quests and still ended up with Level 22 so I'm not sure about 25. If Bioware stays true to Mass Effect/Fallout 3 type of levelling and not other RPG's, my guess is the level cap will be between 25 and 40 because from what I can gather, you cannot playthrough the game again with the same character allowing you to double that level. Again, not sure but at the moment, having completed the game, with both DLC packs and most of the side quests, I see level 99 as totally impossible. --MiyuEmi 16:02, November 20, 2009 (UTC)

With some console commands, you can max out your level at 25. -Fightback

If anyone wants to explore this, I found a bug where you can get 750XP indefinitely by entering and exiting a door. When I finished The Gauntlet, I went back inside to check a chest I had missed, and exiting again, got another 750XP. Back and forth through the door would lead to potentially infinite XP, if you have the patience. If this works for other people, it could be used to spade the hard level cap. 128.253.185.211 20:41, November 30, 2009 (UTC)

Hard Level Cap
Is definitely 25, at least for now. The whole "there is no hard level cap" thing they say in the Manual has been explained by Bioware staff; there is only enough content in the game to hit a maximum of level 23, even if you do every quest, get all codices, and kill every enemy yourself. You hit the soft cap before hitting the hard one, which allows them to continually raise the Hard cap through DLC/patches without appearing to do so, as long as the amount of content in the game never gives you enough experience to reach that level. Zakrael 17:25, December 8, 2009 (UTC)

We all know of the experience glitching tactics, so if one were to use these glitches while on hard or Nightmare, would the cap still be in effect. It does not seem to work if you change difficulties as I tried this to see if the no level cap existed. I'd find it a waste of playthrough to get to level 23 naturally on Nightmare only to glitch at the end to get all the experience points. And for those anti-cheaters, I've beaten the game twice without glitching and my 3rd playthrough is the one that's glitched. --FLaSHBaCK HaSH 00:46, December 20, 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism?
I noticed all the quotes were removed by an unregistered IP. Is this vandalism or was it agreed upon? - Leo Lab 22:38, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

I removed them because they were badly formatted, somewhat non-sensical and added nothing to the page. They felt like a badly planned afterthought.

Page title
"The Warden" is not a good choice for this article, not only because he's not a Warden from the start, but that's not even what he's consistently called. The manual and in game text (not the other characters, but loading screens and such) refer to him as the "main character". Moving this article to Main character is the best choice because it is both timeline-neutral and what he is called in an official context to avoid ambiguity. And, for that matter, it's just a lot more wieldy as a title. 67.159.44.51 18:59, December 12, 2009 (UTC)

From what I've seen and done (3 playthroughs - finishing fourth), "The Warden" is in fact called such consistently after his/her joining. The only other variations would be My lord/lady and you or it in Shale's case. Calling him the "main character" removes really all context on him being a natural character as he's just some droned out name and we've already went through a first change from "player character" to "the Warden". Zf6hellion 20:13, December 12, 2009 (UTC)

Picture
I prefer the old one of the male used in the in-game trailers. I don't think a picture of a whole lot of presets is as effective. Usually, an RPG protagonist is given a canon character in all the trailers. I really think we should use the old one.--Selty 06:14, December 16, 2009 (UTC)
 * Without a female equivalent I have a problem with this. Loleil 06:28, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

Someone could always make a character using the the trailer versions settings and then make a female variant with the same settings, therefore granting a sort of "Gender Swap". Zf6hellion 15:45, December 16, 2009 (UTC)
 * It was my understanding that the PC used in promotional footage couldn't be replicated, but if someone can actually do this, it could be an option. Loleil 23:45, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

The trailers that use actual Gameplay can, I have done so but I can't get it on here cause I only have the PS3 version. Zf6hellion 01:11, December 17, 2009 (UTC)

Question about abilities
NOTE: In all my plays (on XBox 360) I'm seeing my Human Rogue start with Combat Training, Improved Combat Training, Poison Making, and 1 Skill Slot. Please confirm.

Sorry, this was my posting. This is my first time using this wiki. But yes, I just purchased the game for the XBox 360 and started off and noticed I had these three skills. Later I restarted and saw the same thing. Tivadar 14:34, December 31, 2009 (UTC)

I just verified that a starting human rogue gets both combat training and and combat training 2 on the XBox 360. Going to update the page. Tivadar 02:22, January 6, 2010 (UTC)

Ok, on the XBox (and presumably PS3) all Wardens start with the combat training skill in addition to the other default skills. Where they're supposed to get ranks in combat training, then the warden gets one additional rank as well. Tested with various classes/races and for every one I've done it's been the same. Tivadar 23:02, February 6, 2010 (UTC)

Sacred Ashes name
Any sources out there supporting the Sacred Ashes Warden's name being Malcolm Cousland, like the article states? I'm curious, as I haven't found any. --Dubiel 22:04, March 14, 2010 (UTC)

Well doing a search for "Malcolm Cousland" redirects to this page (main not talk) and I can find many people on froums refer to the Warden as Malcolm Cousland I don't think the tralier wardens name is Malcolm. While it is impossible for The Warden to be human yet not a Cousland that doesn't really tell us his first name making such an assertion invalid.

Its been removed anyhow.(58.107.134.213 23:43, March 20, 2010 (UTC))


 * Thanks. I did a little investigating and it turns out "Malcolm" is the name given to the default Warden used in Bioware's gameplay trailers, who is mostly identical to the CGI trailer Warden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1VBRe3XTYk This Warden is also shown in Awakening's trailers. Whether it's canon or not, at least I can see where the assertion comes from. --Dubiel 14:59, March 21, 2010 (UTC)

You know I never thought that the trailer Warden was a Human Noble, mainly because of his tattoo. I was looking at the page for tattoos in Thedas and it says that tattoos on humans means that they have some sort of tribal lineage. And, I don't think that the Couslands have a descendents from the alamari, and if so, why don't Bryce of Fergus have tattoos. My orginal thought about the trailer warden was that he was from the scraped avvar barbarion origin. --User talk:Super Warden 10:40, January 5, 2011

Well if one takes a look a demo vid from 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A3j81ndqzg) the name of the character (I'm assuming either commoner or barbarian origin) is Leander.

Orlesian warden
With Awakening released ( in North America, still can't play it myself >:| ), I thought it might be wise to decide whether the orlesian warden should have his own page or simply be a sub-title in this article. Personally I think he deserves his own page, but that's just my opinion.

Matt-256 23:08, March 16, 2010 (UTC)

I'm all for the Orlesian Warden having his/her own page as it is somewhat a second protagonist from the original Warden. But then again more opinions should come in first before anyone makes a page on it I think. Zf6hellion 20:28, March 21, 2010 (UTC)


 * Nobody really cares if Orlesian Warden is made or not. A load of terrible articles are constantly springing up with crap content, so I can't see why a decent article with someing substantial can't be made. Dch2404 09:57, March 29, 2010 (UTC)

Extra Attribute/Skill/Talent/Spell points
There should be a section that points out exactly how many extra points The Warden can gain aside from simply leveling up; otherwise it'd be easy to miss such things for a first time player utilizing the wiki.

should have
i just realized that the game should have given the warden (and other grey warden companions) a spell/talent branch related to grey warden-ness: better protection against darkspawn, more effective attacks against darkspawn, and so on. that would have been really cool.69.232.174.152 04:36, April 26, 2010 (UTC)Iaulle

Picture
Okay, so, I really hate the profile picture we have. I want to change it to a female and male version of the warden when they are about to slay Loghain. This one doesn't have any appeal for people who are looking on this wikia and deciding on whether they want to buy this game. Selty 14:08, May 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * I still have a problem with something that excludes potential Wardens. The only other viable alternative I see is to remove images of the Warden from the infobox altogether. So we could go with a picture-less infobox or go with something more symbolic like this. 01:09, May 21, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm probably wrong and this is a dumb idea, but you could try this picutre; it's not explicitly male or female and I think it looks pretty cool. Abdeil


 * I'm not sure that would work as it is a cool looking pic, but it kinda looks like his face is made of flames and I know it's a guy ;). 01:41, May 21, 2010 (UTC)

Is it impossible to change you appearance after you create you character?--Sangheili wunna be (talk) 07:12, June 17, 2010 (UTC)

Profile picture isn't a good representation of the warden. Bioware has chosen that trailer warden for the placeholder whether you like it or not. Abdeil's image is a good suggestion. --Gunsdelight (talk) 01:52, June 8, 2011 (UTC)Gunsdelight
 * "Whether you like it or not"? It's a placeholder that isn't even accurately represented in the trailers for the game. That isn't The Warden, that's a Warden. 69.204.129.108 (talk) 02:09, June 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree. The male Warden is Blur Studio's work, so it's not a good representation of the Warden in-game. Bioware may have chosen to use this Warden as a placeholder, but it doesn't mean we have to use it. --D. (talk · contr) 03:03, June 8, 2011 (UTC)

Blur Studio is also trusted with other trailers: Star Wars, Batman, Mass Effect, Fable, Bioshock, and others. It is The Warden because he's on the same quest you do in game in The Sacred Ashes trailer. All I'm saying is the current picture is not a good picture for representing The Warden. It's just a bunch of faces from the character creation.--24.245.54.227 (talk) 19:18, June 9, 2011 (UTC)Gunsdelight


 * It is only a Warden "doing" the quest in-game, but it's a good representation of the game. The trailer Warden is not "the" Warden, much like Hawke in the Destiny trailer is not "the canon" Hawke. I don't think the Warden from the trailer should be used.


 * There's not a picture that is a good representation of the Warden if you want to put a face on him/her; the current picture is a compromise, although it may be changed to something else. Per Loleil's suggestion, it may either be no image at all, or the Grey Warden heraldy (I think it should be the achievement "Last of the Wardens" though—it's a bit more iconic for the Warden). --D. (talk · contr) 21:52, June 9, 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism?
Someone deleted the wardens story section and placed <: I'm presuming this is vandalism but dont know if I can change it back myself or more importantly how too.

appearances
should witch hunt and all of the other dlcs for dao be added?
 * No, it's implied that they appear in other DLCs. Mentioning them should only be if you must get the DLC in order to have the character (e.g., Shale with Stone Prisoner). --D. (talk · contr) 22:54, July 6, 2011 (UTC)

Aedan Cousland
we know Aedan is the Default Warden, and the Human Warrior from the Trailers is Aedan Cousland as he's the only possible Human Male character, so why can't we use an image of him instead of the varying Wardens, we can keep them, but not use it for the main Image, because seeing as all Default Story Choices, rely on Default Human Warden, and thus far the default is Human male, surely we can use one from the Trailers? just an Idea Zachariah Zuan (talk) 21:32, October 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * I think the CGI Warden (Malcolm) and the Male Cousland Warden (Human Male Noble) are two different characters. You would also have to consider Daylen Amell (Human Male Mage).  Malcolm would probably be from the Human Commoner Origin, which was taken out of the game for some reason.  The demo trailer showing the Commoner Origin can found somewhere in this site or on another website.  So in other words, Malcolm doesn't exist in Dragon Age: Origins.  (This is from the top of my head, so correct me if I am wrong)--Fialdestiny (talk) 08:27, October 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * well mage is out the question after watching him use the sword and shield in the manner of a Warrior, I know of Arcane Warriors, but the manner of his skill I would assume he would be a Warrior, I did not know of the commener origin I shall look at it at once Zachariah Zuan (talk) 22:15, October 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * I think he's the unidentified individual on the torture rack at Fort Drakon, separate from the pile that includes heads that resemble Mallol and Gilmore. Obviously, if you're playing as a Cousland (take your pick), it would have to be someone else. DAWUSS (talk) 01:20, August 8, 2012 (UTC)

Dwarf Commoner
It says that the Dwarf Commoner stopped eating "all for a stupid bet". I'm pretty sure that the bet Leske was referring to was the bet that Beraht placed on Evrand winning the Provings. Maybe this is what the sentence in the article meant, but it sounded more like it was implying that the Dwarf Commoner stopped eating because he made a bet to do so. So I'm not sure if that's just awkward wording or if it's implying that he made a bet to stop eating. StillAlive (talk) 02:52, April 21, 2013 (UTC)

Character name, royal title
I took the liberty of verifying a couple of things in-game seeing as how there apparently seems to be some disagreement.
 * Length of the Warden's name: there is a maximum length of 11 characters
 * Consort Status: a male/female noble Warden who marries Anora/Alistair are referred to as Prince-Consort/Princess-Consort in the Origins epilogue. This is somewhat consistent with real-life royal practices.

I'm making the changes now, if there's any further disagreement about this, please discuss it here. Kelcat (talk) 22:14, September 2, 2013 (UTC)
 * Disagree with the later, agree with the former. There is in game confliction regarding whether the warden becomes Prince/Princess consort or King/Queen consort.
 * Prince/Princess consort vs
 * Origins epilogue
 * Warden codex DA2 (prince consort only)
 * King/Queen consort
 * Alistair/Anora at the Landsmeet (three times)
 * Alistair/Anora just prior to epilogue
 * Awakening epilogue slide (queen consort only)
 * Anora codex DAO (king consort only)
 * Warden codex DA2 (queen consort only)
 * Alistair codex DA2 (queen consort only)
 * Bodahn in DA2
 * Alisair in DA2 (queen consort only)
 * I would say the consort status used in the article should be King/Queen consort as their usage is both more frequent (as far as I can see Princess consort is used only once), and more recent. I do concede that there is an argument for the use of Queen and Prince consort instead, based on the fact the DA2 codex uses that pairing, but I would lean against for consistency sake.
 * Two side notes, on real life royal practice, Princess consort is never used for the wife of a king, likewise King consort is almost never used. In the case of the latter, historically husbands tended to simply assume their wives titles, not as consorts but as joint monarch (Mary I of England, and Philip II of Spain, for example) . Second side note, consort should not be capitalised. Alexsau1991 http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090121065227/starwars/images/thumb/c/c7/Goddammit.svg/25px-Goddammit.svg.png (talk page) 23:21, September 2, 2013 (UTC)


 * Alistair does refer to the noble Warden as "my queen" at the Landsmeet, but that doesn't mean that's her official title. Likewise, Anora refers to the male Warden as "king", but in neither circumstance is it followed by "consort." Same with Alistair's codex in Dragon Age 2 (I can't find the Warden's codex on the wiki, so I'm not sure what it says).


 * As far as I can see, the titles King-consort and Queen-consort are never used anywhere--unless I'm missing something. Kelcat (talk) 23:37, September 2, 2013 (UTC)
 * Why are you under the impression that 'Princess consort' is the official title, rather than 'Queen of Ferelden'? Monarchical titles do not work like that. 'Queen consort' is not a title or style, like queen regent it is a term of differentiation. Queen consort Mary of Teck was officially titled and styled 'Her Majesty, the Queen', just as our monarch Elizabeth II is today.


 * Before reiterating the evidence I already provided above, I will cite precedent:
 * Queen Anora was queen consort to King Cailan
 * Queen Mairyn was queen consort to King Calenhad
 * Queen Rowan was queen consort to King Maric
 * All such examples show that that the wives of Ferelden King's all bore the title queen, none bore the title princess consort. Thus far we have no canon example of a male consort.


 * As for reiterating evidence:
 * Anora says to the Landsmeet once a decision has been made: "My husband, the king consort, general of my armies, and the hero who will save Ferelden"
 * Moments later at the Landsmeet Anora says to the nobles: "gather your forces and await the king consort's command"
 * The Epilogue for Awakenings says: "She returned to life at court, resuming her duties as queen of Ferelden and receiving a hero's welcome when she rode back into the capital."
 * Alistair's codex for DA2 says: "King Alistair Theirin was crowned ruler of his kingdom after the end of the Fifth Blight, with the legendary Hero of Ferelden reigning as his queen"
 * The Warden codex for DA2 says: "After ending the Blight, the Hero of Ferelden was wed to King Alistair and crowned queen of Ferelden. She and the king now rule the country together."
 * Just prior to the Epilogue Anora/Alistair says: "May I formally present my betrothed, who will soon be your king/queen"
 * Alistair says to Hawke "Well I supose I better get back to the old ball and chain" to which Teagen replies "you know the queen hates it when you call her that"
 * There is more, but I believe I've provided more than enough to prove my point. Alexsau1991 http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090121065227/starwars/images/thumb/c/c7/Goddammit.svg/25px-Goddammit.svg.png (talk page) 23:03, September 3, 2013 (UTC)