Children

“Beware the Children. They are abominations, even among darkspawn...” ―Jukka

The Children are a unique variety of darkspawn birthed by the Mother.

Background Edit

“When the Blight pushed the darkspawn to the surface, human expeditions were able to venture deep underground for the first time in centuries, meeting very little resistance apart from stragglers. Then people started disappearing. Men would make camp and wake to find one of their number missing. Scouts left on missions, never to return. Search parties found no trace of the lost men, not even their bones. Some saw movements in the darkness, a shifting of shadows that torchlight would reveal as nothing. When a single warrior survived from one squad, he spoke of nothing comprehensible except grinning worm monsters that devoured his companions. The expeditions made haste back to the city.^[1]”

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

The Children are mutated hurlocks born by the Mother, an unusually intelligent broodmother. Its believed that the ability of the Mother to use magic, that is unique among broodmothers, is what allows her to change the nature of her offspring.^[2]

Like the Mother, the Children are free of the Call of the Old Gods, but unlike her, they are not any more intelligent than other darkspawn. They only exist to serve and protect the Mother, and have no goals of their own beyond to destroy and feast on anything that comes near them.^[2] Other darkspawn, even the mighty ogres, tend to avoid them, since the Children are not particularly picky about their food and will eat other dead or even living darkspawn, if given the chance.^[3] The Children are also capable of disrupt blight magic, making even emissaries wary of them.^[4]

The Children are born as childer grubs, worm-like darkspawn that hibernate in cocoons after they have been birthed. When they feel another living being nearby, be by sensing their movements or their body heat, they emerge from their cocoons and attack and devour their unfortunate prey.^[2] This is the only vulnerable stage of their development.^[3]

If a Children devours the flesh of a tainted creature, such as another darkspawn, them it transform into a more advanced form, the childer hatchling.^[2] As opposed to their worm-like larval state, the childer hatchling develop spindly feet and small claws, which make them more agile and stronger, even though their transformation is not yet complete. If a childer hatchling devours another tainted creature, they further mutate into the fully grown adult childer.^[5]

This final form of the Children is by far stronger and deadlier than all previous forms. Their claws have grown long and sharp, and they sprout additional insect-legs. Their body is encased by a protective carapace, making them much harder to kill than a childer grub or hatchling. They are also frighteningly fast; adult childers are capable of speed unmatched by every other type of darkspawn.