Meghren

"This is not a contest! I am the only king and these others are... are malcontents! I will not let this spread any further!"

- Meghren

Meghren was the Orlesian King of Ferelden during Moira the Rebel Queen's and King Maric Theirin's time.

Meghren was named King of Ferelden and sent there as a punishment for having offended Emperor Florian somehow, however before this, the Emperor and Meghren were rumored to be lovers, causing much scandal as they were also first cousins. Despite being named King of Ferelden, Meghren was very unhappy with his position and longed to return to Orlais. For this purpose he often wrote letters to the Orlesian Emperor asking for forgiveness and to be recalled to Orlais. However, his requests were never granted.

As the king, Meghren did a fairly poor job - he despised the Fereldans, looking down upon them as little more than barbarians. Thus, he never attempted to appeal to the Fereldans by adopting their ways or doing things that might have made him more acceptable as their king, despite his advisors' advice that he should do so. Furthermore he was downright sadistic, often tormenting other people for his own amusement, ordering executions on a large scale as well as having a habit of beating people who made him angry. He was also remarkably decadent, being used to 'cultured' Orlais; he once ordered all courtiers to wear masks, punishing the noble whose mask he liked least. He mostly left the job of ruling Ferelden to his mage advisor, Severan. Overall he ruled through tyranny and military might, carelessly sending Orlesian chevaliers to their deaths.

He mostly viewed the rebellion in Ferelden as little more than an inconvenience. After his army had been defeated at Gwaren and the rebellion started to spread to the rest of Ferelden, he was forced to take the matter more seriously. However, instead of following the advice of his advisors, his way of dealing with the rebellion was to impose ever harsher conditions on the Fereldans than they were already under.

This attempt backfired - the general populace continued to rebel, many among the noblemen went over to King Maric's side, the Grand Cleric of Ferelden, Mother Bronach who was one of his advisors abandoned him and voiced her (or rather the Maker's) support for King Maric and Severan was killed not long after that. To make matters worse, two legions sent by the Emperor as reinforcements were defeated by Loghain at the River Dane. Despite being robbed of most of its support, Meghren's rule still lasted three years, after which he and his few supporters barricaded themselves inside Fort Drakon in Denerim. At that point King Maric challenged Meghren to a duel, which Meghren accepted and lost. After this King Maric put his head on a pike outside the gates of the palace, possibly as revenge, for Meghren had done the same thing to Maric's own mother and other supporters of Maric. Thus Meghren's rule ended, which marked the end of the Orlesian occupation of Ferelden.