Dragon King

“The Antaam could have made you strong. But your mother hid you away, made you hide your fire. What does she tell you? Shokra toh ebra? You struggle against yourself, Little Dragon. You do not deserve this. It contains a message from our ancestors. The full words can be revealed by a dragon's fire. With this, we will prove we were meant to rule this world!”

Ataashok, or the Dragon King, is one of the main warlords to emerge from the rebellion of the Antaam against the Qun.

Background[]

Following the failure of the Dragon's Breath plot by a rogue faction of the Ben-Hassrath, the majority of the Antaam openly rebelled against the Qun and split into various different factions. The Ataashok who would later call himself the Dragon King settled in Rivain, ordering his troops to attack Rivaini villages, killing people without even bothering to convert them. He has a disdain for the Qun and Qunari culture, believing those who follow such drivel weak. According to Isabela, the Dragon King is obsessed with dragons. He is said to drink dragon blood in his desire to become one.^[1]

Involvement[]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard[]

When Rook was in the middle of recruiting Taash, the Dragon King sent a detachment of Antaam to capture a Vinsomer. In the subsequent confrontation, Taash revealed themselves as a fire-breather. The survivor report this incident to the Dragon King, who made it his mission to capture Taash.

The Dragon King sends his Antaam to Arlathan Forest to capture Taash while the Veilguard was hunting a Fangscorcher. The Antaam were ultimately unsuccessful, as the party killed both the trappers and the dragon.

This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

If Rook completes the quest Lair of the Dragon King:

Eager to claim Taash and the mysterious Qunari tablet, the Dragon King turns a member of the Lords of Fortune, Cutter, who kidnaps Taash's mother, Shathann, and takes the Qunari tablet, which Cutter and the Dragon King believe is hiding the secret of creating fire-breathers. These events led Rook and Taash to mount a rescue. At his lair in Sharksmouth Mountain, the Dragon King manages to trap Rook and Taash. He then revealed himself to also be an Adaari fire-breather and mocked Taash for letting their mother raise them to conceal their birthright, before going on that Ghilan'nain would use Taash's blood to create an army of fire-breathers for him to conquer Rivain. He is protested by Shathann, who declared that her phrase, "Shokra toh ebra," which he dismissed with disdain, was not an order to struggle against one's true nature, but to find their true self through struggle—something he had never done, but Taash had. Shathann then used her body weight to push the lever that frees the Veilguard from their cage. In anger, the Dragon King instantly killed her by smashing her head with the tablet. He is killed by Taash's fire breath after he and his Kaltenzahn dragon are defeated by Rook's group.

If Lair of the Dragon King is not completed:

The Dragon King destroys a lot of the Rivain Coast while searching for Taash, before heading west to Minrathous.^[2] At Minrathous, he leads the Antaam in an assault together with the Venatori to capture the Divine's Manor from the forces allied against Elgar'nan. In the ensuing battle, he is killed by Morrigan with the help of one of Rook's companions.