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The Kirkwall City Guard is the official army of Kirkwall. Answerable to the viscount, it's responsible for law and order in Kirkwall and its surroundings. While the Templar Order concerns itself with apostasy and demonic possession, matters of crime and contraband fall to the City Guard who walk the patrols and undertake the investigations.

Background[]

When Kirkwall was known as Emerius, it was guarded by the Fourteenth or "Black" Cadre. As one of the worst postings in the Tevinter Imperium, it was not uncommon for convicted criminals to be posted here. After a slave rebellion, the city was thrown into chaos. Only once the Templar Order made their headquarters in the Gallows was order restored.[1]

After Kirkwall was liberated from the Qunari during the New Exalted Marches, Orlais sent an army of chevaliers led by Ser Michel Lafaille to rule the city. Ser Michel saw a need for a permanent armed force to defend the city and to keep the templars in check. Subsequently, the Kirkwall City Guard was formed in 7:60 Storm. However, their power proved to be no match for the templars as was demonstrated when Viscount Perrin Threnhold unsuccessfully tried to eject the templars in 9:20 Dragon.[1] In fact, when Meredith Stannard and a group of her best templars marched on the Viscount's Keep to retaliate against Perrin's execution of Knight-Commander Guylian; the then captain of the city guard quailed before the templars and to prove his own innocence, aided the templars in arresting their own viscount. Perrin Threnhold was tried and imprisoned by Grand Cleric Elthina and died from poisoning two years later.[2][3]

Despite the racial tensions between the humans and the elves being commonplace in most human cities, the Kirkwall City Guards seems to recruit elves in its ranks. In times when the city is beleaguered by invasion, the Kirkwall City Guard has the power to conscript from Kirkwall's population.[4]

Involvement[]

Dragon Age II[]


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age II.


In 9:30 Dragon, Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard used her influence to station the Kirkwall City Guard in the Gallows and turn away the influx of Fereldan refugees fleeing the Fifth Blight—permitting only Kirkwall citizens and merchants that have business ties inside the city. Some such as the Hawke family and Aveline Vallen were able to smuggle themselves inside the city by indenturing themselves to an underground organization and bribing Guard-Captain Ewald to look the other way.[5]

By 9:31 Dragon, Jeven replaced Ewald as the new Guard-Captain. Unbeknownst to the Kirkwall officials and the rest of the city guard, Jeven was in the pocket the Coterie. Jeven would sacrifice his guards by having them carry secret government information and sent them to areas where they would be ambushed by the Coterie. The Coterie would then take the government information with out scrutiny while Jeven would write off their deaths.[6] Eventually however, Jeven was replaced as Guard-Captain by Aveline Vallen, and she began to reform the city guard into a more competent and honorable police force.

Under Guard-Captain Aveline's leadership, the Kirkwall City Guard made progress in keeping order and protecting the citizens; despite them getting little support from the local Templar Order or Viscount Marlowe Dumar.[7] No easy task considering the escalating tensions between the templars and Apostates, Qunari and anti-Qunari sects in Kirkwall, and lastly the widespread activities of criminal gangs in the city. By 9:34 Dragon, the city guard was forced into a dangerous standoff against Evets Marauders—one of the most feared and dangerous raiders active in the Free Marches.[8] For the most dangerous incidents, Guard-Captain Aveline enlisted the aid of her associate Hawke and her other capable companions.

In 9:34 Dragon, Guard-Captain Aveline and Hawke attempted to negotiate the extradition of two elven fugitives who were accused of murdering a city guardsman but have converted to the Qun and were granted safe haven in the Qunari Compound. The city elves believed their murder was justified because the guardsman raped their sister and when they reported the crime to the city guard, the city guard did nothing about it. Although Aveline intended to follow up on the investigation in the future, she cannot tolerate vigilantism. Aveline insists that the elves be released to her custody so that they can pay for their crimes but the Arishok can no longer tolerate Kirkwall's rampant degeneracy. The Arishok orders the Qunari to conquer Kirkwall and forcefully convert it to the Qun—thus instigating the First Battle of Kirkwall. Hawke manages to rally the city's resistance and drive out the Qunari, thus earning the title, Champion of Kirkwall.[9]

With Viscount Marlowe Dumar killed during the Qunari invasion and having no heir, Knight-Commander Meredith assumed control of the city. For the next three years, Meredith blocked the election of a new viscount and turned Kirkwall into a templar-run police state—claiming that the templars needed to seize authority in order to eliminate the apostates and maleficarum in the city. The Templar Order having the trappings of power troubled the Kirkwall nobility[10] and some in the Kirkwall City Guard chafed at the templars' attempts to command them.[11]

Using rumors that Guard-Captain Aveline had weakened the city guard at a crucial time, the templars called to have Knight-Captain Cullen assume her authority and take full control of the Kirkwall City Guard.[12] Testimony from Donnic Hendyr proved that there was no truth to the rumors however, which satisfied Knight-Captain Cullen. Hawke and Aveline investigated the source of the rumors and discovered they originated from the previous Guard-Captain, Jeven. Jeven was attempting to goad nativist prejudices against Fereldan immigrants amongst the Kirkwall populace and even attempted to coax some of the Kirkwall City Guard to support his cause. Aveline and Hawke confronted Jeven and addressed those considering his hateful words in order to discourage public support for Jeven. When Jeven attempted to assault the captain, he was killed in the ensuing battle.[13]

In 9:37 Dragon, the Grey Warden, Anders, detonated a magical bomb in the Kirkwall Chantry—thus killing Grand Cleric Elthina and many others. This provoked Meredith to carry out the Right of Annulment on the Kirkwall Circle of Magi; since she believed she could do no less to sate Kirkwall's thirst for revenge. Knight-Commander Meredith demanded that Hawke aid them in purging the mages in the city for the sake of keeping order, but First Enchanter Orsino pleaded with the Champion to defend them from the templars since the Circle had nothing to do with Anders' attack. Hawke and Aveline are forced to choose a side and depending on who they side with, and how content the Kirkwall City Guard has been with Aveline's leaderhip; the city guard will either be conscripted by the templars and aid them in storming the Gallows or ignore their commands and focus on protecting the city as fighting between mages and templars tear Kirkwall apart. The fighting between mages and templars throughout the city became known as the Kirkwall Rebellion; and after many casualties on both sides, the fighting ended in a final battle between Hawke and Meredith.

No matter who Hawke aided, Meredith ended up accusing Hawke of taking advantage of forbidden magic to facilitate their rise to power. Meredith deemed Hawke a destabilizing influence over Kirkwall and called on her templars to murder the Champion. Knight-Captain Cullen however, considered her attempted murder of Hawke as crossing the line; and consequently he stripped Meredith of her authority. With her own templars turning against her, Meredith began to rave that everyone except her were thralls to blood magic and brandished her greatsword that was forged from the Lyrium idol—a tool that no doubt exacerbated her paranoia. Hawke's forces eventually overpowered Meredith, which made Meredith desperate. When Meredith attempted to draw more power from her greatsword, it overloaded and transformed her into a statue made out of red lyrium.[14]


Dragon Age: Inquisition[]


This section contains spoilers for:
Trespasser.


By 9:44 Dragon, the Kirkwall City Guard managed to move Meredith Stannard's corpse out of the Gallows. The city guard celebrated getting Meredith's body out of the Gallows with an impromptu parade. Several Lowtown residents composed a song on the spot with lyrics to the effect of "Thank the Maker the crazy cursed Templar is gone," which was remarkably catchy.[15]


Hierarchy[]

  • Captain
  • Lieutenant
  • Sergeant
  • Guardsman

Heraldry[]

The Kirkwall City Guard heraldry is a variation of the modern Kirkwall heraldry in the shape of a dragon.

Known guardsmen[]

Codex entries[]

Codex entry: The Kirkwall City Guard Codex entry: The Kirkwall City Guard

Trivia[]

  • An alternate colored version of the Kirkwall City Guard armor is for some reason worn by the Templar Hugh from act 2 on-wards. Carver also wears this armor in the Dragon Age II demo.

See also[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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