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“Deep beneath the Frostback Mountains sits Orzammar, largest and proudest of the two remaining dwarven cities. Once the seat of an underground empire, Orzammar now stands alone, cut off from the world by the darkspawn, still clinging to the memory of its former glory. Below the vast statues and gilded halls where the noble families play at politics, the lower castes live in their shadows, scurrying to serve like their Ancestors before them. Below that… is you. You are casteless, the dirty secret staining Orzammar's perfect society, forced, along with your sister, to sell your services to the crime lord, Beraht. To the rest of Orzammar, you are proof that the casteless deserve their fate; but you know you do what you have to—the same as everyone—just to survive.”

The Dwarf Commoner Origin is one of six playable origins available in Dragon Age: Origins for the Playable character. This character begins as a member of the Brosca family, a family of casteless dwarves living in poverty in Dust Town and severely disenfranchised in Orzammar. As a casteless dwarf, this character is reduced to a life of petty crime and is thus forced to become a hoodlum under the employ of a Carta crime lord.

The default name is "Faren Brosca" if male, "Natia Brosca" if female. The first name can be changed to whatever the player chooses. However, the surname is fixed. Rogue and Warrior dwarves start with this origin.

Introduction[]

“There was a merchant come by Dust Town the other day, some poor sod who's had his skin burnt by the sun up on the surface lands once too often, I'd say. How he gets let back into Orzammar I can't rightly say… he claims that he has a deal worked out. Who am I to argue when someone has an angle?

Point is, he tells me what them cloudheads think of us dwarves down here. It isn't even just the humans, there's surface dwarves who're born and bred up in the sun who think the same things, don't know any different. He says they say dwarves are smiths. Proud, noble warriors who like nothing better than to mine a vein of ore or forge a decent sword.

Had us a good laugh, we did.

What would them humans think if they came to Dust Town and saw how the rest of us really lived? The ones that are casteless, the ones who aren't even considered worthy of being servants in the homes of the wealthy or pure enough to work the forges in the Shaperate? The nobles make sure we casteless get tattooed so they know who we are when they see us. That way they know who to spit on, right? Helps us, too. Makes it easier to figure out whose pockets are worth picking.

That's a joke. Not all of the casteless are criminals. Some of us are beggars, nug-catchers, street sweepers and noble hunters. We do what we can to survive. And let me tell you, when the last defenses of Orzammar finally fall to the darkspawn, it'll be the casteless who survive then. Surviving is all we know how to do. Won't the cloudheads be scratching their heads when that happens?”[1]

Plot[]

Dwarf Origins - Dragon Age Keep

All Dwarf Commoner variations in Dragon Age Keep

As part of the casteless, the Dwarf Commoner is extremely poor and has to run errands for the Carta boss, Beraht, in order to stay alive. The Dwarf Commoner's sister Rica Brosca is also working for Beraht, but is trying to find a wealthy male suitor while the Dwarf Commoner has to do some of Beraht's more unsavory tasks. The first one is finding and killing Oskias, a smuggler who has been hiding lyrium from Beraht. The next task Beraht gives the Dwarf Commoner is to drug a fighter's drink in the Proving Grounds, thereby rigging the event so the fighter Beraht has bet on can win. The Dwarf Commoner makes it to the Proving Ground, only to find that Beraht's fighter, Everd, has passed out from drinking too much. Since failure is not an option, the Dwarf Commoner decides to wear the fighter's armor and win his match for him. Unfortunately, Everd stumbles out into the field just before the last battle, and the Dwarf Commoner must reveal the deception. Beraht managed to apprehend and imprison the Dwarf Commoner in his personal dungeon. The Dwarf Commoner escapes and kills Beraht, only to come face to face with Duncan, who has watched the Dwarf Commoner compete in the tournament. Faced with either exile, death, or joining the Grey Wardens, The Dwarf Commoner chooses to go with Duncan and leave Orzammar.

Walkthrough: On the Streets of Dust Town[]

The origin story opens in the Slums Home, where Beraht is discussing work with Rica and the Dwarf Commoner. When the first conversation sequence ends, the Dwarf Commoner may converse further with their family; the half-sister Rica and their mother, Kalah. If the Dwarf Commoner buys some mosswine and brings it back to Kalah, they can converse with her a bit more, but there is apparently nothing that changes any quest outcomes at this point. Looting the chest in the back of the room yields a dagger (iron). You can then head outside, where Leske is waiting.

Beraht's Favor[]

Main article: Beraht's Favor

Oskias, one of Beraht's smugglers, has been holding his own pockets. The Dwarf Commoner is task with finding Oskias and showing him exactly how Beraht feels about being cheated. Oskias was last seen in Tapster's Tavern.

Proving Loyalties[]

Enraged Proving Watchers

Enraged Proving Master and other watchers

Main article: Proving Loyalties

The Warrior caste is holding a Proving today. Beraht has lots of coins riding on the young fighter Everd and wants the Dwarf Commoner to make sure he wins. Beraht gives them a drug to use on Mainar, Everd's opponent.

Captured[]

Main article: Captured

The Dwarf Commoner ended up in Beraht's custody. Beraht is quite angry with them, and the Dwarf Commoner's chance to are slim if they don't manage to get out of here.

Quests[]

Beraht's Favor Beraht's Favor
Proving Loyalties Proving Loyalties
Captured Captured

Characters[]

Statistics[]

Cg ico origin dwarf common

In addition to those selected by the player at character creation, a Dwarf Commoner Warden automatically begins with the following:

Initial skills[]

Stealing Stealing and either Combat Training Combat Training (Warrior) or Poison-Making Poison-Making (Rogue)

Initial talents[]

Racial ability Dwarven Resistance Dwarven Resistance
Warrior Dual-Weapon Sweep Dual-Weapon Sweep
Rogue Dirty Fighting Dirty Fighting

Initial equipment[]

Weapons Dagger Dagger (2)
Armor Duster Leather armor set Duster Leather armor set

Unique items[]

Carta Shield Carta Shield
Dwarven Warrior's Belt Dwarven Warrior's Belt

Results[]

"Casteless" achievement trophy

Duncan uses the Right of Conscription and recruits the Dwarf Commoner which saves them from a death sentence for dishonoring the sacred Provings and the revered Ancestors. If it has not been unlocked in a previous playthrough, on arrival in Ostagar the Casteless achievement will be awarded.

Codex entries[]

Codex entry: The Casteless Codex entry: The Casteless
Codex entry: The City of Orzammar Codex entry: The City of Orzammar
Codex entry: The Castes Codex entry: The Castes
Codex entry: The Proving Codex entry: The Proving
Codex entry: Dwarven Faith Codex entry: Dwarven Faith
Codex entry: Duncan Codex entry: Duncan
Codex entry: The Grey Wardens Codex entry: The Grey Wardens
Codex entry: Darkspawn Codex entry: Darkspawn
Codex entry: The Blights Codex entry: The Blights

Notes[]

  • According to the timeline of events, the Dwarf Commoner Origin takes place one week earlier than the Dwarf Noble Origin which can be revealed in that origin by speaking with the Proving Trainer. This contradicts a dialogue between a guardsman and a merchant in this Origin, who say the Dwarf Noble's commission feast is the very next day.
  • An unnamed dwarf in the Orzammar Commons refers to the Dwarf Noble as the middle son of King Endrin Aeducan. This also happens in a few other instances indicating that the Dwarf Noble is considered to be a male dwarf unless the player creates a female dwarf noble.[2]

Trivia[]

Bugs[]

  • pcPCThe chest in the Dust Town Home sometimes will not open because you cannot get close enough to it. Strangely, Leske can walk right up (the mouse pointer is gold, indicating a valid right-click location, instead of silver, indicating an unreachable location).
  • Dialogue Bug: Dwarf Commoners have the same dialogue option as Noble Dwarfs during the conversation with Morrigan after the Tower of Ishal (quest), and can - without lying, i.e. there is no (Lie) prefix - chose to say "I happen to be of royal blood, you know."
  • xbox360Xbox360The achievement award items from The Golems of Amgarrak, Witch Hunt, The Darkspawn Chronicles, Leliana's Song and the Blood Dragon Armor may not be present in the chest after being captured by Beraht. There is no way to get them back. A workaround is to keep the DLC on a USB key, and insert the key after this point; the items will be added when the DLC is first seen by the console.

See also[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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