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“First day, they come and catch everyone. Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat. Third day, the men are all 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. Now you lay and wait, for their screams will haunt you in your dreams. ” ―Hespith's poem, describing how broodmothers are created


A broodmother is a giant, tentacled, and sessile ghoul capable of spawning vast numbers of darkspawn in a manner reminiscent of an insect queen.[1]

Background

Darkspawn as a species are asexual and are unable to reproduce. In order to bolster their numbers, the darkspawn take female captives during their raids and bring them to their lairs to be turned into broodmothers.

The captured women contract the taint by being force-fed darkspawn tissue and the darkspawn forcefully spew their vomit into the prisoners' mouths.[2] As this happens they gradually develop cannibalistic urges and heavily mutate, eventually becoming fully-fledged broodmothers after devouring massive amounts of flesh, even from their kin.

Broodmothers give birth to a large litter at once, between twenty and fifty newborn darkspawn.[3] They emerge from her womb as toddlers, often already able to walk, and grow rapidly in their first few weeks of life. A broodmother will birth thousands of darkspawn young in her lifetime.

The race of the broodmother determines which kind of darkspawn she will give birth to. An elven broodmother will spawn shrieks, a dwarven broodmother spawns genlocks, a human broodmother spawns hurlocks, and a Qunari or kossith broodmother spawns ogres.

Involvement

Dragon Age: Origins


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Origins.


The Warden faces a broodmother in order to pass through the Dead Trenches during their search for a missing Paragon. The dwarven broodmother encountered here was one of the women of House Branka named Laryn. Branka willingly allowed her to be corrupted in order to use her "children" to probe the traps protecting the Anvil of the Void.


Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening.


Several broodmothers are killed by the Warden-Commander in the Lower Reaches of Kal'Hirol.

The Warden later confronts the Mother, a human broodmother who was subjected to an awakening by the Architect.


Dragon Age: Inquisition


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.


In resolving the Judgment of Ser Ruth, the Inquisitor can elect to exile Ser Ruth to the Deep Roads. If the Inquisitor selects Leliana as the advisor to handle her Calling in the subsequent war table operation, it is reported back that she was found dead by a Broodmother she apparently had slain, as well as much of the brood that was being spawned.


Abilities

Rotting Gas Rotting Gas

Grab may refer to:

Disambig gray This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Spit Spit

Scream Scream

Sweep may refer to:

Disambig gray This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Vomit Vomit

Note: They seem to be immobile, however, their tentacles will erupt from the ground anywhere within their chamber to attack ranged/magi opponents.

Strategy

Trivia

  • To date, no specific broodmothers of elven or qunari origin have been shown or described.

Gallery

References

  1. BSN David Gaider (18 July 2010). "What do darkspawn eat?" . The BioWare Forum. Retrieved on March 5, 2014.
  2. Hespith#Poem
  3. Dragon Age logo - new Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1, p. 148
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