Malika's Guard is a unique amulet in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Acquisition
Inquisition
- Looted from within the locked house in the Village of Crestwood after sealing the rift in the Flooded Caves.
Trespasser
- Available at the Winter Palace Merchant for 14495
.Note: Only available for purchase at the Winter Palace if not acquired prior to arrival.
Lore
This crude, yet distinctive amulet was originally “created” by Regsith, a dwarven warrior not long after the original darkspawn incursions against the dwarven kingdoms. She and her sister, Malika, were members of the Warrior Caste who had developed a pair of different, yet complementary fighting styles that made them impressively effective. They would both charge into the thick of combat for a full frontal assault. Malika, with her polished inlaid axe, massive armor, and equally large shield would strike their target screaming and cursing. Lightly armored and swift Regsith, on the other hand, would slip in under their now-distracted target’s guard and quite literally eviscerate them, eschewing the more common backstab for precise slashes to the belly. Before battle, Malika would call out to her sister, “I’ll grab ’em,” who would respond in turn, “and I’ll gut ‘em.” Their team-up fighting style (and the fact that Regsith was quite terrible at any sort of stealth or subtlety needed for a scouting unit) ensured that they were always assigned to the same unit, proving their worth in engagement after engagement.
Eventually, the sisters separated, as Malika felt she wasn’t doing enough against the ever-encroaching darkspawn and volunteered for a special assignment under the Paragon Caridin. Regsith was distraught over this, but eventually bonded with a new golem assigned to their unit, who she called Malika in memory of her departed sister.* Malika the golem used techniques similar to those of Malika of the flesh, albeit altered to benefit from its increased size and resilience. The pair performed as well as ever.
Eventually, while on patrol, Regsith’s unit was ambushed by darkspawn and Malika overwhelmed. Seeing her surrogate sister killed, Regsith lashed out at the golem’s killers and tore off a shard from Malika before beating her retreat. Despondent, she hung the shard around her neck with a piece of rough leather cord, and crudely etched upon it with her dagger, “Malika: I’ll keep gutting if you keep grabbing.” After a week alone in the Deep Roads, she returned to the dwarven army and, after some basic treatment from the medics, insisted they send her back out into the thick of it.
Seeing as she would otherwise just run off and be killed by a random darkspawn patrol in her pursuit of vengeance, they assigned her to a new unit and hoped this way she would at least kill a few more darkspawn before going down. Instead of scouting or sneaking around, Regsith resumed her standard method of full frontal attack, this time without her partner. However, she did not die—her targets always seemed distracted somehow, giving her an opening. This surprised her comrades, to say the least, and stories came to surround her distinctive necklace with its roughly shaped, yet eerily iridescent pendant. When she eventually died (due to blight sickness or an enemy’s blow, depending on the storyteller), her unit took the necklace and gave it to the next unstable rogue assigned to them. And it still worked.
Maybe it’s a residual enchantment from a defensive rune Caridin carved into Malika’s carapace. Maybe it really is the spirit of Malika bound to the shard, guarding the bearer as she always has. Or maybe it’s just a distractingly weird shiny object that grabs an opponent’s attention. Whatever the reason, Malika still protects the bearer through this amulet, giving them an opening for the kill, but only if the bearer follows the sisters’ distinctive fighting style: “Grab ’em and gut ’em.”
*Yes, Malika did volunteer to become a golem with the special request that she be assigned back to Regsith’s unit so she could continue fighting alongside her sister.
Trivia
- This item is one of the winning entries from the "Untold Relics of Thedas" contest held by Bioware.[1]
- Malika is the default name for a female dwarven Inquisitor.