Changes: Meredith Stannard

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Meredith is the Knight-Commander of the Templars of Kirkwall and the main antagonist of Dragon Age II.

Involvement

This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age II.

Meredith is Knight Commander at Kirkwall at the start of the events of Dragon Age II. Meredith initially denies all Fereldens from entering Kirkwall, including Hawke and his/her companions. She keeps strict watch on the mages of the Circle, and champions the use of harsh measures to prevent apostate mages. She is also the real political power in Kirkwall, as the viscount fears to go against her wishes. Meredith's obsession with controlling mages borders on paranoia, and she is willing or even encouraging of the templar order's outright abuse of mages. She appears to view the very existence of magic and mages as a threat to the general populace.

During the qunari invasion of Kirkwall, Meredith joined forces with both Hawke and First Enchanter Orsino in an attempt to regain the Viscount's Keep. When Hawke is able to convince the qunari to leave or defeats their arishok in combat, Meredith appoints Hawke Champion of Kirkwall.

At some point after Hawke accompanied Bartrand and Varric into the Deep Roads, Meredith was able to obtain most of the lyrium idol which they had discovered. She had this shaped into a sword for herself. However, the unknown type of lyrium it was composed of caused her to go insane, just as it had done to Bartrand. This development exacerbated her paranoia and prejudices against mages, and tensions between herself and First Enchanter Orsino rose over the three years following the death of Viscount Marlowe Dumar.

After Anders destroyed the Chantry in his attempt to free the mages, Meredith invoked the Right of Annulment on the Circle even though they were uninvolved (as Anders was an apostate mage). The Champion can choose to side with her or support the Circle. Regardless of whether Hawke sides with the Circle or Templars, Meredith will turn on Hawke accusing the Champion of conspiring the whole ordeal and orders the Champion to be executed. Her second in command Cullen, who was usually supportive of her harsh measures, sees her insanity has become so pronounced and orders her to step down. This served to increase her paranoia, accusing all of her subordinates of being blood mage thralls. She then revealed the sword made of the unknown lyrium, which granted her superhuman abilities and capable of animating statues; nevertheless, the Champion and their companions are able to defeat her. In the midst of the battle, Meredith began to question if what she was doing was right but her doubts were quickly washed away. Her sword then shattered and Meredith withered and was petrified in lyrium.

Ironically, her attempts to enclose the mages are the catalyst for the rebellion of the other circles in Thedas: seeing that the templar order in Kirkwall could be defeated, and hearing of the corruption and abuse in the templar ranks led mages everywhere to rebel.

If you side with Meredith at the start of Act III and help the Templars during On The Loose, when you start the quest Best Served Cold, you can question Meredith during dialogue and she will explain why she has such a hatred for mages: When Meredith was younger, her sister developed magical talents but her family decided to shield her from the Chantry. One day, Meredith's sister was possessed by a demon, turned into an abomination and killed the rest of her family save for Meredith, who survived. The Templars eventually slew her sister, but not before the Abomination killed 70 villagers. This experience led to Meredith's harsh view on magic and why mages must be treated as people with a curse.

Quotes

"If you cannot tell me another way, do not brand me a tyrant!"

Trivia

David Gaider wrote Meredith for Dragon Age II. ^[1]
Meeting her is required for the "Friends in High Places" achievement, along with Viscount Marlowe Dumar and First Enchanter Orsino and Grand Cleric Elthina.
Meredith's voice actress, Jean Gilpin, also voiced Amanra the Nubian mercenary (and eventually Queen) in the Age of Empires mythological spin-off "Age of Mythology" and its add-on "The Titans".
Meredith is also one of the figures on the starting screen of the game along with First-Enchanter Orsino.