Dragon Age (IDW comic)

See Dragon Age (Penny Arcade comic) for the miniseries drawn by Penny Arcade.

Dragon Age
Published by	IDW Publishing
Written by	Orson Scott Card Aaron Johnston
Illustrators	Humberto Ramos Mark Robinson

The Dragon Age comic was a monthly publication written by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, with art by Humberto Ramos and Mark Robinson. A total of 6 issues were published by IDW Publishing, and they were available in both print and digital forms.

Plot

The story focuses on the use of magic, and the relationship between templars and mages, both maleficarum and Circle ones. The main story follows Gleam, daughter of a mage and a templar, raised by a blacksmith outside of Chantry's influence.

Issue #1

At Kinloch Hold, the mage apprentices practice their magic. Veness and Abernath are among them. Veness shows a talent to cast fire spells. In the meantime, outside the tower on the Templar Practice Fields the recruits practice swordfighting, and Sadatt is one of them. He manages to defeat his opponent, however when the defeated man bows down before him, he tricks Saddatt, pushing him into Lake Calenhad, saying that templars need to be more focused when pursuing mages.

Later on Veness meets Sadatt and the two develop a friendship, which is something another friend of Veness, Abernath, disapproves of, as he tries to warn her of dangers of a relationship between mages and templars, but also due to his own jealousy.

At the gates an apostate is brought to the Circle. As Knight-Commander Greagoir threatens him not to attack them, he pulls out a knife, cuts his hand and displays his blood magic skills. As all templars but Sadatt lose their ability to fight, they order him to kill the blood mage, who calls them "servants of a false god," but he is unable to move out of fear. Another templar manages to throw his sword at the maleficar, and it lodges in the mage's skull, killing him. The templar then berates Sadatt for his inaction. The incident is witnessed by Veness.

The mage apprentice and the templar recruit are later shown embracing each other in bed. Sadatt asks Veness to stay with him and they spend the night together, however Sadatt leaves ashamed in the morning.

Weeks pass by and Veness confides herself to Abernath, saying that Sadatt refuses to talk to her. Abernath consolidates her, saying that mages and templars belong to different worlds. As he hugs her to calm her down, it is witnessed by Sadatt, who suspects the two of them have a relationship.

Eight months later the templars find out Veness was hiding pregnancy. As the First Enchanter is away, Greagoir interrogates her on his own to find out who the father is. When she answers him with silence, Greagoir loses patience and slaps her. He orders the templar who brought her to take her away and inform the Circle that two mages were intimate.

All male mages are gathered and a spell to detect the father of the child is cast upon each of them. After an hour and twelve mages ruled out, Greagoir orders Sadatt to bring Abernath in. As they enter, the spell detects the father.

The Knight-Commander then advises Abernath to confess being the father and in exchange the child will be taken away, but both the parents will live. As Abernath reports to Veness that he told the templars he is the father and this way he saved her life, as if she told them the truth - that it was Sadatt who is the father, they would be executed. He tells her that he did it out of love and that she will learn to love him one day as well. But Veness cannot accept the fact that her child will have to be taken away, and thus she escapes from the tower, becoming an apostate.

Greagoir orders Sadatt to go after her, as his final test. He hands him Veness's phylactery and orders him to kill her once he captures her.

In the woods Veness gives birth to a daughter. She encounters a travelling blacksmith named Ormo Kettlemaker whom she asks to take Gleam in the name of the Maker upon hearing he lives far away from the tower. She then stumbles back into the forest

Meanwhile back at the tower a genlock emerges from Lake Calenhad and murders two templars whilst sneaking. It is revealed that it is being mind controlled by The Man of Light and he intends to kill Greagoir for murdering maleficarum. It makes his way to Greagoir's room, but before it kills him, he wakes up. Other templars are made aware of their leader's danger and step in. The fight break out and they end up outside of the tower. During the struggle the genlock jumps off the ledge, taking one of the templars with it; they die upon impact. In its last words the Man of Light promises to come back.

Back in the forest Sadatt catches up to Veness. When asked where the child is, she lies to protect Gleam by saying she killed her son and buried him because he was Sadatt's child. Sadatt doesn't believe her, saying that he loved her, but knew she was involved with Abernath and that's why he abandoned her. He then proceeds to kill her and burn her body.

Upon returning to the tower and learning of his fellow templars' death at the hands of the genlock, he states his sorrow and that he may have saved someone was he not outside of the tower at the time. Gregoir responds that he did his duty and fullfilling his duty is all that matters. Sadatt then goes to the chapel at the tower and prays to Andraste. He states that he will never again love or trust anyone, and that from now on his name will not be Sadatt, but Duty.

Issue #2

Gleam, child of a powerful mage and a ruthless templar, is now grown with powers of her own.

Issue #3

Their family dead, Gleam and her brothers Agmo and Daltin strike out on the road to find the killers. But after magically healing her brother Agmo during a fight Gleam draws some unwanted attention, from the dwarf Minderel as well as a group of murderous blood demon disciples of the Man of Light.

Issue #4

Gleam had always been careful to hide her magical abilities, but when her brother is injured in a fight she has no choice but to use her powers to save him in public. That draws the attention of the templars, and one knight in particular: Duty, who was once known as Sadatt—her father.

Issue #5

Captured by the templars and revealed to be a mage, Gleam finds herself bound for the Circle Tower, the last place a wielder of magic would want to go. But templars aren't the only danger in the woods, as Gleam must confront a monstrous spider whose venom can kill in an instant!

Issue #6

Having escaped the templars, Gleam, Agmo, and the dwarf Minderel exit the Deep Roads in a camp under siege by a group of bandits. As the village burns Gleam must use her magic to put out the fires, as her father, the templar named Duty, is close on her heels. Having escaped, her fate is sealed—she must be killed.

Characters

• Abernath
• Daltin
• Fallstick
• Gleam
• Knight-Commander Greagoir
• Agmo Kettlemaker
• Lomo Kettlemaker
• Ormo Kettlemaker
• Kyra
• The Man of Light
• Minderel
• Sadatt
• Veness

Trivia

• The series was most likely to be continued, but was never picked up. Every issue's cover is a sneak peek of what's ahead, and the cover of the sixth issue depicts Gleam fighting a golem.
• It is unknown when exactly the story takes place, but since Greagoir was the Knight-Commander of the tower before Gleam is born, and when she is adult, it is assumed the first issue takes place before the events described in Dragon Age: Origins, in which Greagoir is still in charge of the tower, but is not a young man.

External links

• IDW page