So, I took all the suggestions folks gave me for playing Dragon Age and decided to start over.  I was having fun, with my knew mage, Chelon.  The name is short for Cheloniidae, by the way.  I had a character journal in mind when I created him, and that’s why he’s male, and bald with a goatee.  I also had played through Ostagar, and knew that Morrigan was straight. I thought my normal, “lawful” character might find her an intriguing challenge, particularly if she was a love interest.

I’ve not played far into DA, so my observations and those of my character aren’t particularly colored by pre-knowledge of what will happen.  Hopefully I’ll be horribly wrong and uncannily correct at least once through this. Chelons notes will have this background, that I hope will work.  We’ll see. Let me know if there are readability issues with his bits.  I will also chime in a few places and give my commentary as the all knowing Player.

Well, who shows up right before my harrowing but Jowan.  I’m not sure what’s up with him — he’s been here longer than I have, but he long ago glommed onto me as a friend. At least he hasn’t been around as much lately, but when word that I’d be taking the test soon, there he was, asking me questions, none of which I had the answer to, nor the inclination to answer.

He’s been here longer than most of the apprentices, and hasn’t been called for his yet. I mean, if a man can’t decide if he’s going to shave or grow a beard, he’s going to have trouble with demons, right? I’ve heard the rumors, of blood magic, but I don’t really think he’s got what it takes to do that.

He even showed up after my Harrowing. I had to wonder how I was going to get rid of him, or for that matter why he was there.  We talked for a few minutes, about inanities, but I needed to see the First Enchanter.  He even asked again what my Harrowing was.

I hate it when games do this, presume a friendship or relationship that existed for my PC before the game, without establishing it well. Jowan just shows up and claims to be my friend. Hey, dude, I just met you, I don’t know you from a rage demon.

I blew him off.

I’m not surprised I survived my own Harrowing, but I won’t write about it here.  I’ve been asked by the First Enchanter Irving to not describe it to anyone. He also introduced me to Duncan, leader of the Grey Wardens.

We talked for a moment, as I led him back to his rooms. I was sure that Irving was having me take him back for a reason.  Irving has is subtle moments.  The main thing I got out of the conversation, though, was that there was a whole big world out there that I knew mostly nothing about.  The other realization that I had was that I didn’t really care. I was a Mage of the Circle, and I knew and had my place.  If I was called on to fight, I would go, but that wasn’t my plan.

Jowan bugged me as soon as I left Duncan’s rooms. He led me to the side, where he showed me to his girlfriend Lily.  As a member of the chantry, their liaison was wrong, and well that’s all that should matter, right? They wanted to run away together, and wanted my help to do it.  They needed me, since I had passed my Harrowing, and could get something from stores that they could not.

I told them no, unequivocally no, and walked away, but not before Jowan made some speech about me being a bad friend.  I’m a bad friend? He was only toadying up to me in order to get me to do something for him.  I knew my duty, so I went to see Irving.

Irving, of course, already knew about it. I said he was subtle, didn’t I? It’s one of the reasons I respect him as a leader. I can only hope I’ll have that much respect from my fellow Mages.  His plan, though, I wasn’t so sure on.  He wanted me to help them, in order to prove to the Chantry that Lily was involved.  I understood the political motivation, but it seemed outside the rules.

Still, he is my leader, and I trusted him to take care of things.  So I did help them.

As Jowan got to his phylactery, and destroyed it, I could only hope that Irving had somehow replaced it with someone else’s.  That he’d planned for this.  When we went out and and Jowan showed himself to be a blood mage, I felt a sinking feeling.  Lily, covered in Jowan’s blood shrunk from him and admitted to her faults, at least.

And the chantry did not want to believe that I wasn’t part of it, despite Irving’s insistence, and I was exiled from my home by order of the First Enchanter.  To go with Duncan and become a Grey Warden.  I could only hope that Duncan would prove a more loyal and capable leader than Irving had been.

Interesting that the punishment for a mage to break the rules is death, but it’s imprisonment for members of the Chantry.  I guess they can’t imprison mages more than they already are, comfortable prison as it may be.  At least I was right about Jowan.  He was no one’s friend, in the end.

He’s out there somewhere. In that wide world I’d been exiled to.  I promised myself to keep that in mind, should we meet again.